Zealous
by peenutbutterjell-o
Summary: Follow our beloved captain Luffy as he sets out on a new adventure, one with a whole lot more sass, sexual tension, crew members and drama - all because he consumed a different Devil Fruit of the Logia variety. Oh, did I fail to mention that the Devil Fruit has a mind of its own and is hell bent on destruction? Slightly OP Luffy, LuffyXHarem, new Devil Fruits and lots of lemons.
1. Chapter 1

Hello there people!

I'm your typical guy who occasionally enjoys watching anime and playing computer games. Picture this – just roughly 6 months ago, I was totally clueless about anything and everything anime. Recently, after breaking up with my girlfriend, I kind of turned to anime for comfort as my friends recommended it to me.

I won't say that I'm addicted to anime now, but I find it interesting and am now juggling a few while serving my time in army.

Oh yes, I'm from Singapore.

This is my first time attempting a One Piece fan-fic. I haven't caught up to the Doffy arc yet, I'm still somewhere in between the gladiator battles for the Mera Mera fruit. I'll slowly catch up to the current time-line, but with how slowly I write, I don't think I'll be in any danger of overtaking the anime anytime soon…

Anyway, before we get into the story, let me just clarify a few things.

 **I still haven't decided on the main pairing. I'm leaning towards** **Robin and Luffy** **right now just because I think they'll be adorable together, but y'know, things don't always go according to plan… especially with** _ **these**_ **characters..**

 **There will be smut. Repeat, there WILL be lemons. That's the whole point of this story, to be honest. I'll change the rating accordingly when the time comes. Of course, it won't revolve around it, but there'll be plenty of sexual tension on the Going Merry, and later, the Thousand Sunny. (Names are subjected to change!)**

 **Things will not happen according to the original anime. New crewmates, different destinations, and perhaps even new goals. However, none of the characters will be OC, or at least I'll try to refrain from that as much as possible.**

Well, that's about it for now! I'll address the issues as they surface.

* * *

Now, as we all could probably recall, our endearingly simple-minded captain Monkey D. Luffy ate a Gomu Gomu Fruit, which not only altered him physically to become a man made of rubber, it also affected his internal organs and how they worked.

Or failed to work, in some cases. (Seriously, how is it possible for someone to lack that much common sense? Perhaps the inability for rubber to conduct electricity efficiently has something to do with his brain processing information as slow as a student trudging to school on a Monday morning? And don't even get me started on his lack of interest towards some of the hottest female characters ever made up in anime history.)

Now, if I had my way, none of that would be the case. I'll make Luffy eat a totally different Devil Fruit and find himself inexplicably attracted to a certain redhead or raven-haired beauty because for fucks sakes, which pubescent teen won't find them sizzling hot? But damn it all to hell, I don't –

Oh wait.

This is my story.

Which means that I actually can have my way with them.

Heh.

That was me rubbing my hands together with somewhat psychotic glee.

See, I have this whole thing planned out in my mind. Shanks' crew is going to stumble upon a Devil Fruit unlike one they've ever seen before and…

You know what?

How about we start from the very beginning of the story.

Sit back, relax and enjoy as I tell you peeps my version of the epic adventure known to all of us as One fucking Piece.

Devil Fruits.

Said to be the work of the Sea Devil himself, these natural occurring fruits which bestow mystical powers to whoever or whatever consumes them could be found scattered all over the many islands across the world. They are found in larger, more concentrated quantities along the infamous Grand Line, so encounters with these mystical fruits are rare outside of that treacherous stretch of sea, gifting them with a hefty price tag in the black market.

Devil Fruits come in all shapes, sizes and colours and are most easily recognized by the swirly patterns or marks covering them. They are also rumoured to taste awfully bad – so much so that ingesting one feels akin to poisoning oneself. However, the horrid after-taste is a small price to pay, considering the special traits one would acquire upon consumption of the fruit.

There's an estimated hundred odd known Devil Fruit powers, and if it wasn't before, it has become painfully obvious that these fruits are not made equal.

Certain Devil Fruits powers have a distinct advantage over their counterparts – especially so with Logia-class Devil Fruits. Considered the rarest of all, they grant immunity against almost all typical physical blows as they bestow the users with the ability to transform their whole body into natural elements at will, phasing their physical body into particles of the element before reforming back into their original self. Due to the near limitless potential of harnessing such a fearsome power, Logia-class fruits are firmly seated at the top of the Devil Fruit hierarchy.

There are two more types of Devil Fruits – the Zoan and Paramecia-classes.

The former allows the user to shift fully, typically into an animalistic form depending on the fruit's model, or partially into a hybrid of man and beast. Generally regarded as the weakest of the Devil Fruits due to its sole prowess in close combat while in beast form, there's a sub-class that single-handedly changed the public's opinion of these fruits' potential.

The Mythical Zoan fruits.

They allow their hosts to transform into legendary creatures so devastatingly powerful their names are whispered with equal parts reverence and fear. Sadly, aforementioned fruits are getting increasingly sparse now and are thought to have vanished off the face of the world.

Lastly, the Paramecia-class fruits. These fruits do not appear to grant a specific range of powers like the previous two; in fact, they have the widest range of abilities from downright ridiculous to utterly overwhelming. To put it simply, these fruits present to their hosts every other supernatural ability besides for those encompassed within the Logia and Zoan fruits' circle.

Despite the enormous gaps in power between different classes of fruits, the abilities of Devil Fruits were only limited to their users' imagination and creativity. Hence, it wasn't uncommon to see someone who ate a lower class Paramecia fruit to triumph over a Logia-class considered to be far more superior; such was the law of this jungle.

Things were going just swell until something – or more specifically, someone – caught the Sea Devil's attention. See, the Sea Devil was very much real – he just preferred to reside in a different realm as it watched over its territory with indifference, having not been pressed into action once.

He had watched on as the ancient Oharans planted the Tree of Knowledge, and bore witness to how it flourished and grew over the years.

He had watched on as the City of Gold was built, leading to great prosperity for its people.

He had merely watched on as weapons of mass destruction were assembled, amused by the stupidity of these lower life-forms and their never-ending tendency to eradicate their own existence.

He had watched on as the sea slowly re-shaped islands through erosion, as the early inhabitants of the world started to take to the seas in a bid to explore his world.

Not once had he thought to interfere with the happenings.

What was the point? The lives of humans were so short and insignificant, like that of a firefly in comparison to him. In the blink of its eye, what used to be an exuberant child would have aged into a frail, sickly old man.

With the ability to take on any form as he so pleased, the Sea Devil had spent the past few centuries or so shifting from form to form, from ancient aquatic creatures slumbering at the bottom of the sea to beasts roaming the wildlands and a human that had earned its favour with his amusing antics.

Montblanc Noland was his name.

That was the form the Sea Devil had sustained for close to 400 years.

Now, however, he was sporting a form more familiar to us.

A towering beast of a man, his most prominent feature was his black curved moustache. On his head sat a red pirate hat with a Jolly Roger that would have sent most men into a terror-induced flurry. A long red captain's coat was pulled over a simple blue shirt and grey pants.

Gol D. Roger.

The second man to have ever piqued its interest.

The Sea Devil had been sorely disappointed when he was executed by the marines – for a long time, his journey throughout the Grand Line and then to Raftel had been its only source of entertainment.

Thankfully, the execution set into motion a sequence of events that led to the dawning of a new Age of Pirates, and excitement flooded his entire being at the number of ships once against traversing the wide expanse of sea, all in search of the ultimate treasure, the One Piece, discovered and left behind by the Pirate King himself.

This new age also meant that Devil Fruits – his proudest creation – were in high demand. The Sea Devil had never particularly paid attention to the consumption of them or who by; there simply were too many to keep track of.

All but one.

The Yami Yami No Mi, otherwise more commonly known as the Dark Dark Fruit.

Devil Fruits weren't created as equals. He had ensured that by sealing tiny pieces of varying concentration of his being into these fruits before letting nature decide each and every one of their innate ability.

This fruit, however, bestowed powers that pushed at boundaries never meant to be tested, defying the laws of mortality itself.

Darkness had the ability to corrupt… absolutely.

That fruit was a mistake – the little fragment of himself the Sea Devil had imparted into the fruit far more concentrated than originally intended. It stood above all the others as the strongest Devil Fruit.

It had no rival.

To make matters worse, the man that had found and consumed it was wreaking havoc and leaving destruction in his trail wherever he went. Blackbeard's mind was deranged and filled with so much misdirected self-righteousness – no doubt due to the darkness within him – that he could no longer tell right from wrong. Put simply, he had become a threat that needed to be neutralized.

Normally, he wouldn't give two hoots what went down in the world. As the saying goes, "humans are the architect of their own destruction."

This time was different.

He had caused this problem with his oversight, and he intended to remove the cause of it from the face of the Earth.

The Sea Devil regarded the new Devil Fruit in his hands with a tenderness one would save solely for his or her newborn. After all, it had taken quite a curious blend of circumstances as well as a sizeable chunk of his being to produce such a marvel. Furthermore, for the first and last time – he also implanted a _sentience_ into the fruit. It's something he err to do purely due to the unpredictable personality of the sentient being residing within the Devil Fruit.

More often than not, they end up having a… frighteningly merciless nature with a formidable drive to boot.

They are _devils_ after all, and they definitely live up to their name.

This particular fruit looked like none of its kin. Elongated and bright red, it resembled the shape of a crescent moon. The swirly patterns that adorned it weren't evenly distributed but in much higher proportion in the middle of the body and sparse near the either ends because of the centralized location of the sentience.

It was time to put his plan into motion.

He needed a capable host; one that will be able to control and tame the overwhelming power of the Energy Energy Fruit in his hands.

The candidate he had chosen out of the many was none other than Shanks, the red-haired pirate with impressive willpower and a natural flair at swordplay. He, along with his crew of misfits had made their way through the Grand Line, and then the New World without the aid of a Devil Fruit. And if for some ludicrous reason that wasn't enough to persuade the Sea Devil, the fact that at this very moment, his crew was in possession of a random Devil Fruit which could be easily swapped out with the Energy Energy Fruit would have tilted the scales in his favour.

"Here we go," the Sea Devil grinned as the Devil Fruit de-materialized, only to be replaced with a smaller, rounder one. "The _real_ fun begins now."

 ** _opopop_ _(_ My very special, unique way of line-breaking. noflameplz)**

The little town known as Foosha Village along the East Blue was in full bustle; as expected whenever the red-haired pirates came to pay a friendly visit. Business all over was blooming as the pirates patronized different stores, making their usual rounds around town. The streets were crowded with locals and pirates alike – the former gathered to get their hands on any juicy piece of gossip they could coax out of the hearty pirates about their latest trip into the infamous Grand Line.

The modestly-sized inn was filled to damn near bursting, but nobody gave a rat's ass. The celebration was in full swing; boisterous drunken laughter and the raucous partying of the patrons could be heard from miles away. Barrels of ale and plates piled high with food were being polished off faster than one could blink, and according to a certain red-haired captain sitting at the counter, the party was just _getting started._

"Shanks!" A young boy around the age of ten with jet black hair tugged repeatedly at the sleeves of his shirt to gain his attention. "I want to tell you something very important!"

The redhead downed his drink in a single gulp before regarding the adolescent boy he had come to consider a friend with a wry smile. "What is it, Luffy?"

"Wait." Luffy's lips thinned into a line. "Promise me you'll take me seriously first."

"I promise."

Narrowed eyes peered back at him in suspicion. "You better not be lying. I can tell when you're being dishonest, you know!"

"I've always been taking you seriously, Luffy."

"Nuh-uh! Liar! Last year, I asked to join your crew and you just laughed it off!"

Shanks chuckled fondly at that memory. Luffy had gotten so worked up that day because of his purposefully vague answer, he had thrown a tantrum that would have made God contemplate murder. "I just told you that the time wasn't right."

The child puffed out his cheeks in irritation. "I'm ready to go on an adventure with you, Shanks! I have been training with gramps; I'm strong. You'll totally regret it if you don't recruit me into your crew right now!"

"The Grand Line is not a place just anybody can sail to," Shanks admonished, albeit without any real steel behind his words, "even experienced sailors disappear without a trace."

"But – "

Luffy was cut off mid-sentence by the noisy and overtly dramatic entrance of a teenage boy with a mop of bright pink hair into the inn, echoing Shank's name over and over again. Frantic eyes scanned the interior of the building, and the relief on his face was obvious when the young pirate spotted his captain among the rowdy crowd. Scampering over, his breathing ragged and choppy as if he'd been sprinting his entire way here, he hunched over, hands on his thighs as he took a few seconds to catch his breath and regain his bearings.

The moment he was capable of speech, he straightened and saluted Shanks, the words leaving his mouth in a panicked jumble. "Captain Shanks! I'm sorry I took so long – the Devil Fruit appraiser was out for lunch and he didn't return until barely 10 minutes ago and I urged him to hurry up but – "

"Coby." Shanks interrupted gently with an amused shake of his head, placing a hand on the close-to-hyperventilating boy's shoulder. "Calm down. There's no need to explain to me anything. I'm not like your previous captain" – a flash of anger so profound it reflected in the darkening of his eyes – "and I will not hurt you."

The pink-haired pirate released a shuddering breath, nodding shakily. "Thank you, captain."

Shanks smiled, all traces of animosity gone and lifted the refilled tankard up to his lips to take a small sip of ale. "So what did the appraiser say about the fruit?"

"He said that he had never seen a Devil Fruit like that before. The shape, the colour… it's never been documented before. It also has a strange smell – "

"Eh?! You guys have a Devil Fruit right now?!" Luffy obviously couldn't hold back his growing excitement any longer and interrupted with an awe-struck expression on his face. "Can I see it? I wanna see it!" He started jumping up and down on his seat. "Please let me see it!"

The young pirate, Coby, acquiesced to his request after glancing towards Shanks for his approval. Reaching into the small pouch slung around his shoulders, he pulled out a fruit unlike anything Luffy had seen in his life. It was curved and long – Luffy's first thought was that it looked like the moon hanging high up in the sky at night. The most prominent feature, however, was not the shape but its color – bright red, like that of freshly drawn blood…

Luffy rubbed his eyes. Was he seeing things?

The swirling and eddying patterns seemed to be coalescing into a whole of some sort. Different colours swam across his vision, and he felt his temples start to throb incessantly. The hair on his arms were on end and there was a low hum in his ears, confusing his senses.

 _Eat me._

Luffy blinked rapidly. What the hell was going on?

He was only mildly aware of what was happening around him; the din from the rest of Shank's crew as they continued partying behind him and the red-haired captain himself engaged in conversation with Coby, who was gesturing animatedly. . .

Then his gaze fell on the neglected Devil Fruit placed atop of the bar counter, easily within reaching distance.

 _Stop resisting._

Slowly, everything around him faded to black. The hum was getting louder, quickly becoming all he could hear. A part of Luffy dimly registered that this felt like the calm before the storm, when static charges were saturated in the air.

 _Just a small bite. One bite will do…_

Luffy nodded mutely, conceding to the words in his head. It made so much sense. He was hungry, and the fruit will satisfy his needs. The crescendo of noise was gradually reaching its peak as he extended his hand outwards. Before he knew it, he had the fruit in his grasp and was lifting it up to his mouth, already anticipating the burst of flavour.

 _Yes, yes. So close._

The next sequence of events appeared to take place in ultra-slow motion. Coby shouted in alarm when he noticed that the fruit was missing, and jabbed a finger in his direction before pushing off on his heels in a lunge with a soundless scream. Shanks whirled around, the panic on his face evident as his mouth moved to form words warning and ordering him to put the Devil Fruit down.

 _ **Crunch**_ _._

Coby's body collided with him, and the impact knocked him off his perch on the chair. The pair sailed through the air in an almost comical manner, the barely eaten fruit in one direction and them in another.

 _FINALLY!_

The last thing Luffy heard before he lost consciousness was a loud, maniacal cackling within his head and a worrying feeling that his life was about to get very, _very_ complicated.

Oh, and that the fruit tasted absolutely horrible.

 ** _opopop_**

The Sea Devil, upon witnessing the fiasco, promptly face-palmed.

Now he understood why humans felt the need to carry out that action.

* * *

 **So, as you guys can see, there's already something going differently – Coby is with Shanks from the very get-go. I'm not going to reveal too much, but he's going to be a big part of this story, and you guys will see why very soon.**

 **Leave a review and tell me what you guys think!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hellooooooooo people! I'm back with a (RARE) quick update.**

 **Granted, this chapter is relatively short and didn't take me very long to write. I promise the next chapter will be longer, but that'll also mean it will take slightly longer to write :( Bear with me, 'kay? I'll make it worth y'all kind folks' time!**

 **Anywho, thanks for all the reviews and kind words, people! I'll answer some of them later below, so don't leave just yet after you finished reading!**

 **Oh, on a side note, I just got a new tattoo today.**

 **On another side note, my uploading schedule is kinda whacky. I could upload within two days, or up to two weeks (Though I promise to try my best to upload once every week, tops!). I have quite a lot going on in my life now, so... please understand if my uploads are very irregular and have no pattern whatsoever.**

 **Onto the story!**

* * *

 **New Beginnings**

"Damn it Luffy!" Shanks shouted irritably, holding up the boy in question with one hand gripping the top of his head. "What in the world possessed you to eat that Devil Fruit?!"

Luffy, his arms crossed and lips puckered into a pout, refused to answer and just looked away from him while hanging in mid-air. The rest of Shank's crew had stopped carousing for a moment in favour of observing the trio and their captain's reaction to losing a Devil Fruit. When it became apparent that nothing of overt interest was going to happen, they groaned in unison and resumed drinking and making merry.

The red-haired captain wasn't quite done with Luffy yet, however. "Do you know what this means? You can't swim or float anymore. You're literally going to sink all the way to the bottom of the sea if you so much as fall off a boat! And, to make matters worse, the Devil Fruit you just ate is unidentified. We have no idea what power is possesses; it could be something as useless as the Hito Hito no Mi, which is a human human fruit – absolutely useless when consumed by a human!"

Coby, sitting on the seat previously occupied by Luffy, nodded furiously in agreement before wincing as it aggravated his headache caused by the concussion he suffered from tackling the quiet and sullen boy next to him.

"Now, in the best case scenario, you got lucky and ate a fruit with decent powers. This brings in yet another problem – _Mozaru Hantas._ Translated to be Demon Hunters, they're essentially Devil Fruit hunters. They are a group of extraordinarily strong ex-pirates who switched professions after realizing how much more lucrative it was to hunt down and exterminate people with Demon Fruit powers and capture the powers into another fruit before selling it off to the highest bidder." Shanks paused, finally letting Luffy down and placing him on the bar counter. "You have no idea what you just got yourself into, boy. This is an entirely new world we're talking about here. Only the strongest survive."

After being silent and prone for possibly the longest time ever in his life, Luffy sent a scathing look at him. "Then train me to become stronger, Shanks! I want to be a pirate like you too!"

"It's not so easy."

"Why not?"

"Because Luffy," Shanks explained slowly, wearily, "it takes years for you to master your Devil Fruit power, assuming that it's not something utterly useless. Furthermore, don't your gramps want you to become a Marine?"

Coby visibly perked up at the mention of the Marines.

Luffy pulled a face. "Don't wanna. Marines are boring."

Coby audibly gasped, causing both of them to turn to regard him. Blushing, he gesticulated wildly. "I-It's nothing! Don't pay any attention to me!"

"Oh, that's right." Shanks smiled, patting the pink-haired boy on the head affectionately. "Coby here wants to join the Marines."

Luffy studied him with squinted eyes as if he was a never seen before alien life form. "You're dumber than you look, pinky."

"Hey!"

Shanks laughed. "Now, now. Let's both agree to disagree, shall we?"

Coby and Luffy glared at each other briefly before turning away with identical annoyed expressions.

"Anyway," Shanks continued thoughtfully, tapping against his chin with a finger, "do you feel different, Luffy? Your powers – if you have any – should have kicked in by now."

The raven-haired boy's reaction to his question was to poke and tug at every single part of his body before attempting numerous stunts that just left him panting and out of breath – all to no avail. Red-face and gasping for air, Luffy glumly plopped back down on his seat and sighed loudly. "I don't feel any different and I can't do any cool new stuff that I couldn't before." All of a sudden, he brightened up like a lightbulb switched on. "Oh wait, I nearly forgot!" Immediately, his facial features scrunched up into that of immense concentration and his hands balled into fists on the table. A second passed, then two, then five.

Shanks raised an eyebrow, not exactly certain what to expect. Coby, who was pointedly ignoring Luffy up until then, also glanced over reluctantly.

They didn't have to wait much longer though, as Luffy rewarded their patience with a soft belch that could hardly be heard over the din. His absolutely crestfallen look made Shanks burst out into laughter. "I was so sure that was going to be it!" He grumbled to no one in particular before drowning his disappointment in a glass of orange juice.

"That's the power you want? The ability to burp loudly?"

Luffy stuck a tongue out at him upon hearing his incredulous tone. "At least it's better than nothing. Bleh."

"You know, Luffy, it's not a bad thing to not have a Devil Fruit power. I don't have one, and I'm doing just fine. Sometimes, it can prove to be more of a liability than an asset, especially when you don't even know what it is." Shanks said sagely, nodding in gratitude when Makino, the bartender, refilled his tankard with ale. "Let's just hope that it'll suddenly pop up and reveal itself sooner rather than later."

And just as the last word of the sentence left Shanks' mouth, there were a few shouts of warning from the other end of the inn and from the corner of his eye, Shanks caught a glimpse of a poorly aimed dart sailing through the air, with Luffy plainly in its trajectory.

And for the second time in the span of a few minutes, everything went into slow-motion.

Shanks knew he was too late to knock the dart out of the air or shove Luffy out of the way, but that didn't stop him from trying to save the oblivious boy from injury. He reached out with his right hand, at the same time watching with abject horror as the dart, turning and twisting in the air, found its mark with unerring precision…

Before just phasing through the boy in question's side harmlessly and dropping immediately onto the ground with a solid _thunk_ , as if it lost all momentum.

"Huh?" Luffy exclaimed in bewilderment, looking to his left and right so fast that it was a miracle he didn't get whip-lash, "what was that sound?" His eyes went down to his torso, a slight frown marring his features. "And why does my body feel all tingly?"

 _It couldn't be…_

Shanks was staring at the clueless boy who was petting his abdominal area furiously – presumably to try and recreate the sensation he felt seconds ago – with his mouth agape. That boy had a Logia-class power?!

He shook his head – not possible. When the dart had passed through his body, Shanks hadn't seen any elemental shifting of the targeted area. It appeared more as if the dart had been _sucked_ into the body before exiting, albeit without any of its former speed.

It was like Luffy had absorbed all of its energy before spitting it back out.

What kind of ability was that?

Off the top of his head, he could think of a few plausible Paramecia ones, but he won't know for sure unless…

"Luffy."

Hearing his name, the raven-haired boy stopped poking his mid-riff long enough to peer up at him. "Yes?"

"I want you to try to get to the other end of the inn within a second."

Luffy scrunched up his nose. "What for?"

"You want to be a great pirate right?" Shanks asked, and when Luffy nodded eagerly in response, he continued, "then you'll need to do this. All great pirates are capable of such a feat."

"B-B-But that's impossible!"

Not if he had a Logia-class power, but Shanks kept that to himself for now. He'll find out eventually anyway. "It's possible, Luffy. Just concentrate on the wall at the other end of the room, and envision yourself bursting to it."

"But how would that help me reach there in a second, Shanks?" Luffy asked, confused. "It'll be my legs that carry me there right?"

"Not if you possess a certain Devil Fruit power."

The boy's eyes widened fractionally at the prospect of discovering his ability, and he immediately shifted his body to face the opposite end of the drinking hall, his eyes narrowing.

"Now, I want you to clear your mind. Just think of reaching the wall as quickly as possible, and – "

In a blinding flash, Luffy dematerialized.

At that very exact moment, there was a deafening explosion and Shanks stared disbelievingly at the curiously shaped hole on the opposite wall suspiciously resembling a certain black-haired boy that he could've sworn was just sitting opposite him.

"Whoa." A single word laced with worship from Coby. "That was _so_ cool."

Shanks barely paid any attention to the gathering crowd of cheering pirates around the fallen boy, who had quickly gotten back to his feet with a sheepish smile while scratching the back of his head.

He also wasn't aware when Makino sighed deeply beside him before scribbling something down on a list that was only half the length when he had last visited.

All he could think of was that Luffy had actually eaten a Logia-class fruit, and an absurdly strong one at that.

 _Dear mother of the Sea Devil._

* * *

 **In order to get to the good parts faster, (with the rest of his nakama, of course! Especially Nami and Robin heheheh) I'll be skipping CERTAIN arcs that have no significant effect on my story. Will give you guys a heads up before I do that.**

 **Now, the reviews!**

 **Nil089: You. You are a lifesaver. I could kiss you. 'Cept I won't, 'cos I'm straight and I'm not sure whether you're male or female. Thanks for pointing that out!**

 **Lightningblade49: Ah, that's the problem I'll have quite a lot as I'm definitely pretty far behind. Hopefully my rationalization makes some sort of sense, as this is what I'll be going with in this series. Is it something about awakened Devil Fruits though? Oh well, I'll just have to find some time to go and read the manga since I really don't have enough time to watch the anime right now. Thanks for reviewing btw!**

 **Devlin Dracul: Hello! You guessed right - the fruit will definitely be some sort of partner to Luffy. Question is... will it be a good or bad partner? Heheheh. Well, I do intend to add her in when the time comes (and perhaps a few others!), but until then, this will be the main harem. But don't worry! Hancock is also one my favorite characters with her... _interesting_ character. Plus her possessive tendencies will make for a much more dramatic harem. So let's see how it goes, 'kay? :D**

 **Almighty Imaginative Craziness: That's a real mouthful of a name you got there, buddy! Thanks for the clarification regarding the reason for his personality, but I think Luffy is a tad bit too oblivious to be purely due to his upbringing. At least that's my take, so I'm going to make him more like a hormonal teenage boy in this story rather than someone with the libido of a frigging inanimate object. Oh, and thanks for the suggestions, I'll definitely give them a try!**

 **To the rest of y'all, thanks for reviewing and leaving me comments! They really make my day.**

 **Until the next time, _ciao._ **


	3. Chapter 3

**_Chapter 3: And so it begins..._**

* * *

 _Seven years later…_

Dawn found Luffy gazing out at the wide expanse of sea from his precarious perch on the top of the cliff overlooking the port, the frayed ends of the straw hat he had grown accustomed to wearing fluttering slightly in the cool breeze. The sun was making its way leisurely up towards its rightful position in the sky, and the light and fluffy clouds foretold a good day of sailing ahead.

The port was already bustling with activity, and getting more crowded by the minute. Greetings and friendly banter were exchanged between the fellow sailors as they prepared to start another day of work. Usually, such a scene would have piqued Luffy's attention, but not that day. His eyes were trained on something else – a small boat bobbling up and down in the safe waters of the harbour.

The day he had looked forward to so fervently all these years had finally arrived.

A smile slowly spread across his face as the teenager took a seat on the sandy ground, crossing his legs. Excitement bubbled up from within him, and he was literally twitching to get going on what he's sure was going to be a journey of epic proportions. He was going to make new friends, fight strong people, travel across the world… and of course, succeed Gol D. Roger as the next Pirate King.

There wasn't a single doubt in his mind that he would be unable to achieve that. He refused to even entertain that ridiculous notion; after all, self-doubt only serves as a deterrence. Having had learnt that from a young age under his gramps' – Monkey D. Garp, one of the few Marines still alive that had witnessed the former Pirate King's rise to fame and notoriety – tutelage, Luffy had become exceedingly optimistic towards everything and anything happening around him.

Simple-minded, some people would chide him of being, but he knew better.

Being happy-go-lucky had its merits, hence the phrase ignorance is… breeze?

Something along that line, anyway.

Hurried footsteps sounded from behind him, the gradual increase in volume alerting him of someone's arrival. Luffy, however, didn't have to turn around to know who it was. He was only expecting a particular someone's company anyway. "Coby, it's good to see that you've changed your mind."

The pink-haired teenager huffed loudly in annoyance as he stopped next to Luffy. "You could've acted surprised at the very least."

"I could," Luffy conceded in a drawl, tilting his head to regard him with a grin, "but I'm not. So I didn't."

Coby had grown tremendously as well over the years, both physically and mentally, albeit under Shanks' guidance instead as he had followed the red-haired captain for a few more trips around the Grand Line. He had only decided to leave his service when Shanks achieved the title of _Yonkou,_ ascending to become one of the four emperors of the sea that were feared and revered in equal measures across the world. Never one for fancy titles, Shanks had decided to stay within the New World so he could continue doing what he loved without interruption. That only solidified Coby's determination to forge his own path. He briefly deliberated whether to join the Marines after announcing his imminent departure to Shanks, and his former captain had advised him to think it through more thoroughly – after docking at Dawn Island for what could very well be Shanks' last visit in a very long time.

Fingering his neckerchief absently, Coby glanced at his friend next to him. After reuniting with Luffy and spending just a bit of time with the energy man, he had found himself craving for far more than just bringing justice to the world. Luffy's contagious enthusiasm and blinding passion towards his goals had eventually won his heart over; to be fair, he hadn't put up much of a fight either. In the face of his childlike naivety and ability to put people at ease with just a crooked smile, Coby had fallen for Luffy's words hook, line and sinker.

The duo lapsed into a comfortable silence, both lost in their own thoughts.

In a way, Coby couldn't think of a better captain to follow than Luffy. Selfless to an almost laughable extent, his compassionate ways reminded Coby of himself. Putting aside his tendencies to spout nonsensical comments and placing himself in danger for no good reason due to his non-existent sense of self-preservation, Luffy is an incredible role model.

One that Coby was certain he'll follow to the ends of the Earth – which he actually might, in his search for _true_ justice.

His adventures with Shanks had opened his eyes to many new things, and the proverbial light bulb had appeared above his head after all the shocking discoveries. The Marines were, in more ways than one, blinded by their pursuit of "absolute justice", which has led them to commit offences after offences without so much as a blink. They claimed that their actions were all warranted in the attempt to achieve the greater good, but Coby found that their actions just left a sour taste in his mouth.

Pirates, on the other hand – or at least Shanks' crew – lived by an unspoken code of conduct. Sure, there will definitely be some motley crews that pay no heed to such rules in favour of foul play and underhanded tactics, but a majority actually prided themselves for following the rules.

For example, when the captain of a crew surrenders, all personnel on the ship will immediately be considered as under the protection of the crew that had taken over them. Under no circumstances whatsoever should they be harmed after they wave the figurative white flag, unless they attempt to revolt – only then, can force be used (again) to subdue them. The conquered crew of pirates will then be allowed to get off at the next nearest island.

Only the strongest survived in this world, and Coby wouldn't have it any other way. It motivated him to constantly push himself to get stronger, to take down formidable adversaries he once thought impossible.

And he was confident that Luffy will push him to become that stronger person he sought to become, in all sense of the word.

"So, the Pirate King huh?" Coby said, breaking the quiet. "When you set a goal, you really aim high don't you?"

"What's the point of a goal if you can achieve it easily?" Luffy's response only affirmed that Coby's decision to make him his captain was a right one. "A goal should challenge you. Make you push yourself to your limits, and then further."

"You've really changed, Luffy."

"I could say the same about you, Coby."

Coby laughed, lifting his face up to the sky and basking in the glorious warmth of the morning sun. "I hope you've at least figured out how to control your Devil Fruit ability when I was gone."

There was a long pause, and when the pink-haired boy looked to his captain, he saw that Luffy's expression was carefully blank – inscrutable, even. He knew better than to push for an answer though; Luffy was bound to reply eventually.

As expected, the answer came within a minute.

However, when he spoke, his tone was measured, the words coming out slowly as if he was running them through his brain before saying them out loud. He really _did_ change, Coby thought wryly. "My power is… unique. Even after all these years and help from Shanks as well as my gramps, I still can't fully grasp what I'm capable of. The possibilities are endless. Energy isn't technically an element on its own, so even the Devil Fruit appraiser is way out of his depth here."

Luffy pursed his lips, picking up a stray pebble on the ground and tossing it up into the air. "You see, energy is all around us. It can be changed into different forms like light or heat. I've found that I'm able to manipulate the energy surrounding me to move faster or slower. Take this" – he pointed to the pebble in his palm – "for example. When it's tossed in the air, it possesses a certain type of energy, and when it reaches its peak all the energy has been lost – converted into another form – so it pummels to the ground." In demonstration, he let the pebble hit the ground, sending up a small plume of dust from the impact. "I can alter the concentration of energy by absorbing it into my body at will; watch."

Fascinated, Coby kept his eyes trained on the pebble as Luffy once again threw it into the air. It slowed down in mid-air, having lost all its energy, and was about to drop back down when –

It halted entirely, levitating in the air.

"Whoa." Coby gaped in astonishment at the sight of the floating object. Raising a trembling finger, he prodded gently at it, causing it to move just the slightest bit before freezing once again. "This is so cool."

"I took away all the energy – or forces, to be exact – acting on the pebble. Without anything directing it, it remains suspended in mid-air until I return the energy back to it." A split second later, the pebble commenced its journey back to the sandy ground. "That's just one example of what I'm able to do," Luffy continued. "Like I said, the possibilities are endless. Anything regarding the manipulation of energy, basically. I just have to be more creative!"

"That's awesome," Coby gushed, happy for the progress his companion had made. "I wish I could do something like that too."

Luffy laughed loudly. "I'm sure we'll find a Devil Fruit for you along the way, Coby. Don't worry about it! Maybe yours will be even cooler than mine!"

"Perhaps." A smile tugged at his lips, because how could you not laugh along with Luffy?

Coby had actually given this a lot of thought, and by this, he was talking about consuming a Devil Fruit. The opportunity had arose twice in total during his trip with Shanks, his crew having had stumbled upon them when exploring islands yet to be mapped. He was offered the fruit, seeing how the rest of the crew either already had a Devil Fruit power, or had pledged to never consume one.

He would be lying if he said that he hadn't been tempted.

But he had rationalized – like many members on Shanks' fearsome crew that swore off Devil Fruits, they wished to achieve whatever they had set out to do with their own strength only, and without any additional help from external parties. When he had approached one of the abovementioned member for advice on this matter, the pirate had merely chuckled and slapped him on the back, _hard._ "I have absolute confidence in my abilities," he had said while in the midst of lighting a cigarette, "and if the situation arises where my own strength is not enough to allow me to prevail, I'll accept my death with a smile because I have done my best and have no regrets left."

That was a piece of wisdom he still held until now, resounding deeply within him. He wanted to improve, but not with the help of a Devil Fruit. He wanted to become stronger by _himself._ He had come a long way since the day Shanks first found and rescued him from Alvida's clutches, but the road in front of him was even longer and filled with danger.

He wouldn't pretend that he wasn't afraid – just thinking about it sometimes had him wondering if he was biting off more than he could chew – but he wasn't alone. Not any longer.

He had Luffy.

"So, what are we waiting for?" His heart was pounding fiercely in his chest, and Coby had never felt more alive than at that exact moment. "You ready to go, captain?"

A blinding grin and a reply that was all Luffy. "I'm always ready."

 _opopop_

It didn't take long for the novelty of it all to wear off, escalated by Luffy's maddening nonchalance and downright stupidity.

The initial excitement faded slowly to nothing more than a buzz before long, and an hour after that, focusing on _not_ strangling Luffy was all Coby could do. He was rapidly losing his sanity, and throwing himself off the side of the boat was getting more and more tempting.

"We need a bigger boat," Luffy was saying with a flourish of his right hand from his seat at the foremost tip of the small craft. "I won't be able to get anymore nakama if our boat remains this small! They won't even be able to fit!"

Coby didn't bother looking up. He was busy scrutinising the compass in his hand, trying and failing to make sense of where they were going. Perhaps, if his captain had remembered to bring a fucking _map…_ "Uh huh. While we're at it, how about we get ourselves a navigator as well? Someone who will actually guide us to our next destination rather than eventually lead us to our untimely deaths?"

It was apparent that Luffy was taking his suggestion some serious thought as he frowned, a look of intense concentration taking over his usual carefree expression. If he didn't know better, Coby would have thought he was making a crucial life or death decision; which, in actual fact, could quite literally be the case.

Maybe Luffy might actually make the correct call this time –

"Nah. Not that important. Let's focus on getting a bigger boat first!" His cheerful yet absolutely tactless response had Coby sighing in resignation.

Well, it wasn't for lack of trying.

Returning his attention to the infernal piece of contraption that as the compass, Coby uttered a silent prayer to the Sea Devil that they'll recruit a navigator sooner rather than later.

Preferably before they both ceased to exist.

 _opopop_

It was mid-afternoon by the time the duo realised that they were adrift in the middle of nowhere.

To be more exact, it took a good half a day for _Luffy_ to realise that they were floating about aimlessly with no means at hand to get to their next destination – wherever that might be. And if it were not for his growling stomach demanding an immediate meaty sacrifice, he probably would still be oblivious to that worrying fact, despite Coby's constant efforts at alerting him to it.

"We should have brought oars to row with," Coby grumbled, already envisioning his tombstone and the words that will be engraved on it when they both kicked the figurative bucket. Luffy first, of course, since he was going to fray his skin with his bare hands, Devil Fruit powers be damned.

 _Here lies idiot._ Luffy's tombstone.

 _Here lies the bigger idiot who made idiot his captain. God bless your soul._

"This is the last time I'll let you pack our supplies. Really? The bag is EMPTY for crying out loud!"

Luffy didn't look the slightest bit fazed by his accusation. "You told me to bring only the bare essentials."

"Yes, I did, but you brought _nothing."_

"No," Luffy replied excruciatingly slowly with a furrowed brow, as if it evaded his understanding why he couldn't grasp such a simple logic, "I brought _oxygen._ You know, what we need to survive? If that's not essential, I don't know what is." His huge grin made Coby's right eye twitch erratically, his whole body tensing in anticipation for the sensation jumping into the ocean will bring – he had no idea how much more he could take before he started a mutiny. "Bet you didn't think of that, huh? You may now thank me for my thoughtfulness."

"Trust me, thanking you is the _last_ thing on my mind right now." Words squeezed out through gritted teeth.

"Ah, of course. You're probably thinking about getting a bigger boat, right? That's my first mate, always having his priorities right even when his captain is getting carried away!" Totally misinterpreting Coby's expression of utter disbelief as agreement, Luffy clapped his hands together in glee and continued happily, "then, I say we get ourselves a cook. And not just a normal cook! No, he or she must be an accomplished one that's able to whip up the most delicious dishes like Makino! Hey, maybe I should have just asked her to come along…" Luffy removed his straw hat and scratched the back of his head. "Do you think we could turn and head back, Coby? It won't take long, promise."

Exasperation had Coby's voice going up several octaves. "We are stuck here in the middle of the ocean, Luffy. Even if I wanted to go back – and I speak only the truth when I say I really do – I'm trapped here with you."

"Oh." The raven-haired boy fell silent.

Thankful for the respite, however brief, Coby surveyed their surroundings. The ocean stretched as far as his eyes could see in every direction, but a bobbling speck of brown stood out amongst the sea of blue. From this far away, it looked like a piece of shipwreck.

Raising an eyebrow, he reached for the telescope on deck, one of the only three objects that Luffy had brought along for the journey. A compass, telescope and a bloody _orange_ he had immediately devoured ten seconds after leaving the shore.

"You can never have enough Vitamin C!" Luffy had advised him with a huge grin when he noticed Coby's look of bafflement.

Shaking his head with another sigh, he lifted the telescope to his eye and peered through it at the area where he had spotted the piece of wood. It took a few seconds for him to identify the object again – it was actually another small boat being tossed and turned quite wildly in the medium-sized waves.

Coby lowered the telescope and frowned. The weather was clearer than his immediate future – not a particularly informative analogy, he admitted, considering his bleak outlook on life with Luffy in the picture, but still – and there wasn't a single cloud in sight. The sea was eerily calm, which was primarily the reason why they hadn't moved much in the past few hours.

So why in the world were there big waves coming their way?

Raising the telescope once again, he observed as the boat continued to be bullied by the forces of nature. A flicker of movement caught his eye and he took a step forward, squinting harder as his breath caught in his throat. It took several moments for the gears in his mind to turn and process the information of what he'd just seen. _Dear mother of the Sea Devil…_

Shock rendered him immobile and mute for a further few seconds before he finally found his voice. He slowly placed the telescope down. "Luffy," he muttered, nudging his captain in the back with the toe of his boot, causing Luffy to jerk up in surprise. "We have a problem." He jabbed a quivering finger in the direction of the emerging Sea King, just as it released an ear-splitting roar.

"A very _big_ problem."

* * *

 **Greetings people! Once again, thank ya for all the reviews. It's great to hear that you guys are enjoying the story so far!**

 **Just a short note: I'm changing the rating from T to M. I foresee lots of swearing from this chapter onwards (courtesy of the new character appearing in the next chapter, a cookie to whoever who can guess his or her name!) plus I do intend to have lots of smut in future chapters, as well as a potential orgy heheheheheheh so y'know, might as well change the rating right now, huh? **

**And regarding LUFFY. He will be slightly out of character, as I've said (or ranted) in the first chapter about the effects of the rubber fruit on his internal organs. Logically, with a different fruit - especially one as energizing as the ENERGY FRUIT - he should be quite different. The carefree and childlike personality of his that makes him Luffy will stay, because really, who the hell is he without those traits? Buuuut, he will be prone to sagely moments like when he was explaining the progress with his Devil Fruit powers as he's definitely smarter than in canon.**

 **I wrote most of this chapter on my mobile phone, which is a real pain in the ass, but I just didn't have much time on the computer the past week or so. Anyway, hope you guys enjoy the growing relationship between Luffy and Coby! He'll be playing a really important role in this story, and yes, Coby is now the first mate instead of Zoro. Does that mean that he'll be as strong as Zoro? Perhaps, but we'll have to see how the story plays out now ;)**

 **ANYWHOOOOOOOOO, the reviews!**

 **Devlin Dracul : Hmm, all in a matter of time, young one! :P But yes, I do intend on making the harem a pretty big one, but still manageable. Since Hancock appears pretty late into the story, I'll just have to add one or two to tide things over till then, huh? heh.**

 **Thorndsword : This is all I've got so far, so yeah :/ I'm not the most creative person, so I'll just see how the characters interact and cause stuff to happen, then I'll adapt accordingly. Thanks for the review anyway! **

**Nil089 : Hello, female! Me male. Hah, I have no idea why I keep thinking of him as Cody. Perhaps too much of Suite life of Zack and Cody? Hmm... Ah, yes! I've been meaning to address that for awhile, but I keep forgetting. Cody is the same age as Luffy in this story. I'll peg the both of them to be at 17 years of age right now. **

**Sarane Mun : I have to agree that Luffy being all clueless and dumb has its merits; the fact that he always wins in the end helps alot :P but he has a pretty overpowered fruit in this story, so even with his personality, he'll find it a tad bit hard to not demolish the earlier enemies! Regarding the part about his innocence... I'm sorry, I have just changed the rating of this story to M, so... yeah. You know where this is going. **

**In case you don't, sex. Plenty of it. Like lots. Yep. Going to make Luffy the ultimate sex magnet. I mean, that's basically my motivation for writing this from the very beginning. To let Luffy have an adventure as a _normal_ hormonal teenager, y'know? But I won't go too overboard, I guess. He's not pervy or anything, just... a normal teenager.**

 **Almighty Imaginative Creativeness : Right, I'll be sure to remember that. I do have quite a bit of experience writing lemons since I used to post on this site a few years back and have posted a few, just under a different username. Lost that account though, so gotta start fresh.. **

**TykkiMikk : Yes, yes! *Nods vigorously* That's exactly what I'm talking about! Well, when he was younger, it could be because he just hasn't reached puberty, so there's no attraction yet. But once he's a full-fledged teenager? NO FUCKING WAY. He should be head over heels over dem gurls because shit dem ass and dem tits. Like legit. Don't worry, this issue will be rectified fully ;)**

 **So, once again guys, leave me a review and tell me what you think!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Before we get down to the juicy bits, let me just give a shout-out to** **for contributing his awesome ideas to help the development of this story. If you guys have any Devil Fruit ideas, story line progress, characters y'all wanna suggest to me, go ahead! I'll reply to your PM when I have the time :)**

 **Now, shoo! Read the chapter!**

* * *

 ** _Chapter 4: Navigator, secured!_**

* * *

"Cat Burglar" Nami wondered if this was indeed retribution for all the crimes she had committed over the years, however petty they were. She had robbed, tricked and conned countless people from different islands – mainly men, since they were especially susceptible to her womanly charms and more likely to fall prey to her schemes. With a simple wink, a sway of her hips or a chaste kiss to the cheek, she would have them at her mercy, willing to offer her anything at just a snap of her fingers.

She had exploited her talent ruthlessly, milking her victims for everything that they were worth. However, she made it a point to only steal from pirates. She understood that it wasn't any better as she was still committing a crime, but at least she was stealing from people who were equally undeserving of such riches, having had obtained most of it through illegal means. It was nothing personal, really, she just needed the money to free her hometown from the clutches of Arlong, the cold-blooded – literally and figuratively – merman that ruled with an iron-clad fist and crushed all manners of resistance swiftly and without a single shred of mercy.

It had taken close to eight years, but she almost had enough. One more successful heist and she would have been done, able to buy the freedom of her and her fellow townsfolk. They would have finally been able to live without constant fear for their lives.

And of course, _this_ had to happen when she was so close to the finish line.

Gripping onto the sides of the stolen boat for her dear life, Nami let loose a scream when the monstrous Sea King broke the surface of the water with a deafening roar that left her disoriented, partially deaf and scared out of her fucking wits. The waves its emergence caused tossed her around violently, threatening to completely capsize the boat. Large droplets of sea water rained down on her from the outward explosion, drenching her almost completely.

 _I'm going to die,_ Nami thought dazedly, staring at the rampaging Sea King mere metres away as its scaly, snake-like head swivelled slowly to land on her. _I'm actually going to die before I regain my freedom. All that saving up for absolutely nothing._ She felt numb, resigned to her miserable fate of being a Sea King's snack.

Still, that didn't stop her from making one last measly attempt at saving her own life. "Mr. Sea King!" she called out to the monster, waving her hands in the air as if it will make her appeal more convincing. "I'm thin and full of bones. I guarantee you won't like my taste. How about you let me go this one time? _Pleeeeeease."_ She added on a seductive wink as well as a shimmy of her hip for good measure, though it probably just looked like a body spasm with how much she was trembling.

A second passed as the Sea King regarded her blankly, blinking several times as if in confusion.

Nami held her breath, her hand over her pounding heart.

Then the giant predator narrowed its eyes, opened its mouth, revealing an impressive row of razor sharp teeth each the size of a house and sprung towards her with another loud roar.

 _At least I tried._ There was an ear-piercing shriek resounding in the air, and idly she recognized it as her own as she brought both hands up to cover her eyes, unwilling to watch as the jaws closed around her with a _snap_ , and the daylight to be extinguished as she travelled down the monster's gullet –

But nothing she anticipated came.

Instead, there was a sound of solid contact, followed by a deep, guttural wailing and another splash of cold, frigid water that left her sputtering. Her eyes shot open, and she realized that it was quiet – _too_ quiet. Where had the Sea King gone?

A quick glance around her surroundings ascertained her initial suspicion that the Sea King had disappeared, and with the immediate danger out of the picture for now, she took deep, steady breaths to calm herself down. Her pulse was still beating way too fast for her liking with adrenaline skirting through her veins from the near death experience. "Okay, Nami, you've been given a second chance to live, so you're going to make an effort to be a better person. . ."

Nami gradually became aware of her hair standing on ends, as if there were lots of static charges in the air. Frowning, she turned her upper body to check the back of the boat only to find the deep blue sea as far as she could see, as well as clear skies. _Huh. It doesn't look like it's going to rain either._

Her brow knitted together as she attempted to discern the source of the discomfort. Nami turned back and found herself staring at a teenaged boy with a red straw hat on his head. For what seemed like the third time that day, a strangled gasp escaped her mouth involuntarily and her hand instinctively went to her chest, over her heart to ensure that the organ was still working normally. "Who are you?! You weren't here a moment ago!"

The teenager removed his straw hat with one hand and grinned widely. "My name's Luffy! It's very nice to meet you!" He sounded calm and cheerful, which really ruffled Nami's feathers. He couldn't just come and scare the living shit out of her and act as if nothing happened! "You have a very small boat." Stretching his arms and arching his back in a full stretch, Luffy pointed out with disappointment in his tone. "It's almost smaller than ours!"

Nami ignored his rambling – she didn't really care how big her boat was. It wasn't even _hers_ anyway. "How did you get here?"

"Like how any normal person gets to the middle of the sea. By sailing."

"I don't see any boats around here."

"That's because my boat is – " Luffy craned his neck and pointed somewhere in the far horizon " – over. . . I can't see it anymore. The waves must have pushed it even further away." A slight frown. "I hope Coby's okay."

"Coby? Who's – Nevermind." Nami shook her head, sending wet tendrils of her hair swinging around and slapping the side of her cheeks when it returned. "How did you get here if your boat's all the way over _there?_ And what happened to that Sea King? Did you have anything to do with how it just disappeared?"

The teenager was still looking away from her at where he had tagged his boat to be and didn't reply. "Hey Luffy, I'm talking to you!" The redhead huffed in annoyance, not used to being ignored by men. They fawned over her, craved her attention. . . did almost anything as long as she so much as acknowledges their presence. And this fella right here was more interested in a friggin' boat that he couldn't even _see_ anymore?

The mere idea of it was unconceivable to the gorgeous girl who was used to being revered by men.

"Huh?" Luffy spared her a cursory glance. "You were asking me something?"

"Yes," she said with an air of exasperation, "I wanted to know how you got onto this boat. And what happened to the Sea King."

"Oh."

Nami waited patiently as the boy made himself comfortable on the small boat. She took this time to really give him a good once-over – she had been too shell-shocked to really register his appearance just now. He was tall and somewhat lanky, a sure sign of him growing into his post-pubescent body. A mop of dishevelled black hair could be seen under the straw hat, and the unruly strands blew about gently in the breeze. Clad in a black T-shirt with a lightning bolt graphic in the middle and a pair of blue shorts, the lounging boy smiled at her expectantly.

"Well, aren't you going to answer me?"

His face clouded with confusion. "Answer you about what?"

"Were you even listening to what I was saying?!" Her smile was getting more strained by the minute. She didn't want to offend him as he could very possibly be her saviour, but it was increasingly unlikely with each word that left his mouth. He looked to be in his early teenage years, but with the mentality of a toddler. There was no way the Sea King was taken out by him... right?

"Not really." He held up one hand when Nami prepared to barrage him with a string of vulgarities, and surprise rendered her speechless, but only for a second. It was quickly replaced with white-hot anger. Did he just tell her to _shut up?!_ "I'll be right back."

And in the blink of an eye, he was gone. The boat rocked unsteadily from the sudden lack of weight on one side and Nami scampered to the middle to balance it out with a yelp. She was soaked to the bone, confused and above it all, furious beyond belief. Fuming silently, the redhead folded her arms over her translucent top and imagined skinning the raven-haired boy alive when he returned.

 _If_ he returned.

What made her think that he was definitely coming back?

Well, in her very short but incredibly frustrating encounter with him, her initial impression of him was that he could be trusted. As ludicrous as it may sound, she was hardly ever wrong about such things. She's a good judge of character – always had been, which was exceptionally helpful in her line of business – and could read people like an open book.

After all, deception was her forte. She could sense it from a mile away, like a dark and cloying aura. It helped her to differentiate between ally and foe, though she rarely got close enough to make friends. It made stealing from others easier – they were all just nameless faces, one of her many victims.

Having a conscience made things exponentially harder, and now that she was so close to her goal...

She couldn't afford any distractions.

Just thinking about her current situation got Nami expelling a ragged breath that she didn't know she was holding. Why did her life have to be so complicated?

"You look sad." A familiar voice startled her from her reverie and she straightened, pushing strands of hair away from her face. "Is something the matter?"

Luffy was back again, sitting directly opposite her and so close that their legs were touching. Uncomfortable being in such close proximity to someone she didn't know well yet, Nami slid backwards on her rump till her back hit the other end of the boat. "It's nothing," she mumbled, cheeks heating up for some reason under his curious scrutiny. _Nothing you can do to help me, anyway._ "Where did you go?"

"Check on Coby and our boat."

"Who's this Coby person?" Nami asked.

His smile lit up his face. "My crew member! He's a great person – he wanted to be a Marine last time but now he's decided to be a pirate like me!"

Nami gaped at him. "You're a _pirate?"_ Then his whole sentence sank in. "You're the _captain_ of your crew?"

"Yep!" Luffy confirmed with another ear-to-ear grin, totally oblivious to her horrified tone. He did that a lot, Nami thought wryly, smile like there was not a single care in the world. She wondered how that would feel. "I'm going to be the next Pirate King!"

Of everything she had expected to hear, that was quite possibly the last. Below "I'm going to save you from Arlong" and just above "you're actually a princess, Nami, here's all the treasures you've ever desired in your life!"

"You're kidding me right?" Even he wasn't that big of an idiot… no?

Luffy cocked his head to the side. "Why would I lie to you?"

"You're serious." He's serious. He was indeed that big of an idiot.

"Of course! With Coby by my side, nothing can stop us!" He looked a little sheepish then. "We might need a bigger boat though. Do you, by any chance – "

He abruptly stopped mid-sentence, a perplexed expression replacing that smile. Name found herself detachedly thinking that he didn't look nearly as good as when he was happy. "What's wrong?" She ventured to ask, mildly wary of the answer she will receive.

Luffy unfolded himself from his sitting position and stood up. "Stay back…" he trailed off and turned to her. "I still don't know your name."

It was at that very moment that a column of water shot into the air next to the boat with a verocity that had Nami back-pedalling instinctively with a short cry. The giant waves the explosion created swept the boat away and there was a brief moment where Nami thought for sure that the boat was about to capsize, but it was like the laws of physics suddenly stopped being applicable to them as they hung motionless almost perpendicular to the sea. The motion that would have pushed them over completely disappeared, leaving her with a disorienting sense of total inertia.

Then it was over, and the boat settled itself once more onto the choppy waves, bobbling merrily as if nothing had happened and it was all just a figment of her imagination.

She could almost believe it too – it was simply too surreal and unnatural. However, the trashing Sea King from before directly in her line of sight discredited that theory entirely.

It looked pissed.

Swallowing audibly, Nami lifted her head to find Luffy standing exactly where he had been before, taking in the scene before him dispassionately like it didn't bother him in the slightest.

Perhaps it didn't; after all, from what she could gather about his abilities, he could dematerialize and teleport at will – he wasn't in danger at all.

She was.

Paling at that revelation, Nami hugged herself tightly. Maybe she had spoken too early. Maybe the Sea Devil didn't favour her that much after all. Who would? She was a conniving and deceitful bitch – she would be better off dead.

But was it really that bad to meet her demise now? She could escape from her troubles, leave all her problems behind. She no longer had to worry about her future or engage with the demons from her past.

It would be truly liberating.

"What's your name?"

Nami was so caught up in her thoughts that she almost missed the quiet question. "Huh?" She looked nervously at the Sea King who was eyeing them like a human would a juicy piece of steak. Even if she wasn't hugely opposed to dying, she was still unnerved. After all, this was her first time.

Not like there'll be a second, but hey. She was allowed to feel skittish.

"You name." The shadow cast by his straw hat concealed Luffy's expression. "I'd like to know your name."

"I don't think this is the time, Luffy. You should get out of here while you still can – "

"I'm not going anywhere."

"Then you're going to _die!"_ Nami shouted, getting up to shake some sense into him roughly. "There's no way out for me, unless you can teleport me out of here too." She paused, cruel hope blossoming in her chest. "Can you?"

His reply was short and like a knife through her heart. "Not without killing you."

Her shoulders slumped. It really was the end of the road for her.

"Now, can you tell me your name?"

"Why does it matter anyway?!" She burst out, scowling at the raven-haired boy. "I won't be around much longer for you to call me by it!" She took a few deep breaths to collect herself, then sighed. Might as well humour him before her demise, huh? "Oh, fine. It's Nami. There, you happy now?"

A predatory roar permeated the air, and out of the corner of her eye, Nami spotted the Sea King opening its massive maw and lunging towards them. She squeezed her eyes shut, praying for her death to be swift and merciful.

"Nami, huh?" She dimly heard Luffy repeat her name. "I like it."

And little did she know that from then onwards, her whole world was about to turn upside down.

* * *

Luffy didn't like how Nami's bottom lip was quivering, how she was cowering in fear. He felt inexplicably protective of her, especially when she was in such a sorrowful state.

Maybe it was because of an incident in the past that left an everlasting impression on him. He was 10 then, and he and Ace were messing around with some of the neighbouring kids.

Having had Ace as his sole playmate and companion for a large chunk of his childhood, along with his gramps as his mentor, it came as little surprise that he had been unable to comprehend the physical limitations of normal kids who hadn't undergone the same training as him. During a game of tag, he had used unnecessary force on one of the girls in the midst of his usual exuberance, injuring her in the process.

Thankfully, it had only been a small scrape, but she still cried her fucking lungs out.

It was the first time he had ever saw and heard a girl cry, but it destroyed him. He swore it'll be the last time. He didn't particularly enjoy the damage control once the tears started flowing freely and his complete lack of experience interacting with the opposite sex left him totally clueless on how to make them feel better.

After all, he never really had a way with words. He was used to letting his actions speak for themselves, which was how he spent most of his time with Ace. Their conversations comprised of little to no words, unless you counted grunts and childish insults. They were more comfortable in expressing their emotions through the little things they did as they took after their grandpa who was a man of few words.

It got better over time, as Luffy found himself opening up more and more to the people around him who had no inhibitions to showing their emotions freely, wearing their hearts on their sleeves proudly.

Narrowing his eyes at the approaching Sea King he had sent sinking to the bottom of the ocean floor just minutes ago, Luffy reached within him and drew on his enormous reserves of energy. This creature had distressed Nami – its fate was already decided. His power was a wild and unrestrained beast that responded eagerly, wanting to be unleashed to wreak havoc and it took him a sizeable effort to keep it at bay, to prevent it from obliterating everything around him in pure, undiluted energy. The vehemence of his emotions caused the beast within him to fluctuate in strength alarmingly, but he tamped it down viciously with the control he had mastered painstakingly over the years. It trashed and snarled, demanding to be released in a physical form.

Only allowing the tiniest bit to leak out and manifest into blue sparks at the tips of his fingers, Luffy lifted one of his hands and pointed his index finger at the rampaging Sea King. It was so close now he could smell the rotten stench of decaying foot down its gaping throat.

He fired off a blast of energy between its eyes.

The small beam of coalesced energy pierced straight through the Sea King. The extreme heat cauterized the entry and exit wound immediately, and the putrid smell of burning flesh hung heavily in the air.

Luffy summoned a gust of wind to ward it off before it reached Nami, not wanting her to be privy of the violence taking place inches away. At the same time, Luffy gathered all the energy the Sea King possessed within his palm by closing it before redirecting it the opposite way with a deft flick of his fingers.

In the span of a second, the Sea King was defeated and sent sailing back through the air soundlessly.

Luffy took a well-deserved moment to survey his handiwork before it disappeared from sight, a mere speck in the distance. "You can open your eyes now, Nami," Luffy said as he gently tapped the shuddering girl's head, "it's all over. It's gone."

Bewildered large brown eyes blinked rapidly up at him, and she took a quick look around to determine if he was speaking the truth. "B-But how? What happened?" She asked shakily and scanned around her one more time as if her eyes had deceived her the first round.

"I sent it away." Luffy answered, purposefully vague. It was partially true, anyway. The last vestiges of his anger faded away when Nami straightened her back and pegged him with a withering stare that had him smiling. Annoyance. He'll take that over sadness anyday.

"How do you just send a Sea King away, Luffy? That's not possible."

"I can be very persuasive when I want to be."

Nami snorted in an unladylike manner. "Yeah right. And reindeer can talk."

Something about that sentence bugged the hell out of Luffy, but he didn't pay much heed to it. All in good time, maybe. "They can?! I didn't know that!"

The pretty redhead just looked at him. "They can't Luffy," she deadpanned.

"But you just said that they could!"

"It's just a saying, not – You know what, forget it." Nami tried to stand up and teetered on unsteady legs. She waved him off when Luffy moved to support her, keeping him at arm's length with the outstretched hand. "I can manage on my own."

She was aware of Luffy's eyes boring into her back when she hunkered down onto her haunches and opened a small wooden compartment in the middle of the boat. Reaching inside with her hand, she fished around to check that all her belongings were still in place, particularly the sack of gold she had pilfered from the last group of pirates. It brought her total tally up to hundred million beli, the agreed sum with Arlong for the freedom of her island.

Once she ensured that everything was in order, she closed the hatch again and faced Luffy. "So." She felt uncharacteristically awkward. "Thanks for saving me. I, uhm, really appreciate it." _Wow, way to go, Nami._

The seemingly perpetual smile on his face widened into a grin. "It was no trouble." Apparently not facing the same problem as her, Luffy adjusted his askew straw hat so it sat on his head more comfortably. "Whatcha gonna do now?"

Shielding her eyes from the setting sun, she gazed in the direction of Cocoyashi village. The familiar sensation of despair and longing welled up from deep inside. She had some business to settle. "I'm going home."

"Where's that?"

Nami slanted him a glance, pursing her lips together before she automatically lied to him. Lying was second nature to her. She had been doing it her whole life. However, he had saved her life and her senses told her that he was trustworthy. She owed him that much. Studiously ignoring the voice inside her head telling her that she was undeserving of being even remotely close to someone like him, she said finally, "Cocoyashi village. It's just North-West of here, but quite a distance away."

"Cool! Do you know how to use a compass?" Luffy sounded excited.

"Yes," she answered slowly, trying to figure out his angle for that question but coming up with zilch. "Don't everyone?"

Unsurprisingly, Luffy shook his head. "Not me. Coby doesn't know how to use it too, but he's trying really hard back there."

Something occurred to her. "Then how are you going to become the Pirate King if nobody on board your crew is able to navigate?!"

Luffy laughed heartily. "Things will work out. They always do."

Nami found herself desperately wanting to believe in the boy's words.

"Not always," she whispered to herself, but Luffy must have heard it because he caught her by the side of her shoulders and effortlessly lifted her up entirely before setting her down in front of him, much to her indignant sputtering and struggling.

She clamped her mouth shut when she noticed how serious and still he had become. His gaze settled on her face, and Nami fidgeted slightly, unable to maintain eye contact. When she made to lower her head to escape his probing eyes, his fingers, warm and calloused, cupped her chin and gently urged her to raise her head so that she was looking at him again. Her breath caught in her throat at the intensity in which he was regarding her, and her heart started racing faster. What's going on? She had never felt this way before.

"Join my crew, Nami." His voice was low and silky, a husky whisper that had heat prickling the skin around her neck. "I promise that I'll never let any harm come to you."

Then he was gone, and disappointment thrummed throughout her body at his departure. She shelved it away in her mental catalogue to review at a later date; she wasn't in the right frame of mind right then to do any analysing of her feelings. "I can't Luffy." She wrung her hands, recognizing it as her nervous tic. "I… don't want to get you hurt. You can't help me."

The voice in her head chimed in return, and this time it was a force to be reckoned with. _He defeated the Sea King like it was nothing,_ it reasoned, _he could take on Arlong and win. He'll be able to save you._

Nami quashed any emergence of hope before it could take root fully. She wasn't about to risk Luffy's life and find out if he was a match for Arlong. The merman was one of the Pirates with the highest bounty in the East Blue for a reason – he's tyrannically strong.

"I can."

Two words spoken with so much conviction that even Nami wanted to believe it, but she shook her head quickly – partially to dislodge any creeping thoughts to agree and potentially kill her saviour and partially to disagree. "You can't."

"Tell me your problem."

She shook her head again. "You already saved my life once. I won't want to impose any more on you."

Luffy looked as if he wanted to continue arguing, but then he drummed his fingers against his jawline before nodding in agreement. "Fine."

Nami told herself that she wasn't disappointed from the lack of fight he had put up. "Good."

"On one condition." Luffy brazenly grabbed her hand and Nami almost jumped in shock. "You join my crew for the time being. We need someone to show us the way, and if I'm not wrong, your town is on the way to the Reverse Mountain." He waited patiently for her to affirm his words, and Nami nodded mutely, her thoughts seemingly scattered yet focused at the point of contact between them at the same time. "We can go our separate ways at Coconut village."

"Cocoyashi village," Nami corrected him before finding the strength to tug her hand away. It was doing weird things to her brain and she didn't like it.

"That's what I said." Luffy took a step back, all smiles. "So is that a yes?"

She blew out a breath. She didn't need to weigh the pros and cons to know that this was beneficial for both of them. This arrangement meant protection for her from other sneaky pirates looking to make a quick killing, and in turn, she could teach them a thing or two about navigation.

It was a win-win situation. Absolutely perfect.

And frankly, she just didn't have the strength to dispute with him anymore.

Nami flashed him a tired smile back. "It's a yes."

She tried not to read too much into how her heart fluttered when Luffy beamed.

She just had a shitty day, that's all.

* * *

 **Goddamn, this was a bloody long chapter. 4.7k words in total - a new achievement for me. I wrote most of it on my phone too, which is pretty new. Hope you guys enjoyed the interaction between what will probably be the pairing for awhile to come, until the next few girls appear in the story.**

 **So yes, the order of the appearance of Luffy's crew members are going to change. Who do you think is going to be next? Heh.**

 **Moving on to the reviews! Thanks for all the love, guys. I'm glad to see that most of you are enjoying the story or giving me a follow/favourite. Hope y'all continue to enjoy your stay here!**

 **BigBoss0694x: Here's your requested meal, upsized with extra large fries and coke as well! Hope you enjoy this chapter ;)**

 **Devlin Dracul: Yep, that's what you'll have to look forward to! Coby's strength, I mean. I roughly have an idea of how strong I want him to be and his abilities as well as his fighting style, but I might change it up according to how the story flows. You're right though, Shanks is arguably stronger than Garp and probably has a very different method of training, so he'll end up very different than in canon! Besides, his captain is _Luffy,_ that should be more than enough to change him fundamentally heh. **

**About the Sea Devil, he's definitely going to be the "God" of this story. He'll make a few more appearances, but briefly and only when situations get very, very dire, which won't be soon since Luffy will easily overpower his opponents with sheer power until the later arcs. Thanks for reviewing!**

Wacko12: **Energy Energy Fruit! There'll be more explanations along the way about his powers and what he's able to do, along with the limitations and weaknesses.**

Sarene Mun: **This chapter will show you a little bit of how the story will progress in terms of it being M rated! It's just a bit of fluff here and there with escalating sexual tension till they do the deed. Won't be too overboard, I promise you! Makes it too unrealistic, and I'm all about the realism :P Thanks for the encouragement and review! 3**

 **Complicated Days: I really like Coby too, his character development might not be too in-depth but it shows promise! I'm a sucker for these newb to pro sorta story lines, so he's one of my favourite characters in canon one piece!**

Rosan Uzumaki: **Yes, he has. It's all the same as in canon unless otherwise specified, but the past is all the same! Thanks for the compliment and review :)**

 **Until the next update y'all! Ciao~**


	5. Chapter 5

**_Chapter 5: The Island of Darkness_**

* * *

Coby had taken the arrival of a new crewmate well. Maybe that was an understatement; he had literally sobbed in relief when Luffy parted to him that particular piece of information of Nami joining them, purposefully leaving out the temporary portion as he had every intention on convincing her to stay for good during their time together as a crew.

He had muttered something like, "My prayers have been answered," before crawling over to Nami like he was helplessly lost in a desert and she was the elusive oasis.

He watched quizzically as the pink-haired boy in question kneeled in front of Nami and poked her in the thigh tentatively at first before crying out and thanking her arrival profusely while kissing the back of her hand, much to her chagrin and stupefaction.

She shot him a questioning look, and Luffy shrugged in return.

Once the necessary introductions and niceties were out of the way, Nami was making the final preparations by stowing away her belongings into the compartment on what would be her new boat and taking stock of the items they had at hand, which was pretty much nothing. Luffy looked on with interest as her face turned a dark shade of beetroot red.

"Can someone explain to me," she said slowly, menacingly, her head swinging to the side to regard the two of them with a scowl that would have cowered lesser men, "why we have no fucking supplies at all?"

Coby suddenly found the tips of his boots to be highly fascinating.

Luffy, having no sense of self-preservation at all, answered brightly, "I can!"

Nami raised an eyebrow. "Please do."

"I ate it."

"You _ate_ all the supplies?!"

"Not like there was much anyway."

Coby chimed in out of the blue, eager to lay the blame on his captain now that he finally had someone on board that could count past three. "And who's fault is that?"

Luffy's smile faltered slightly when he realised that the both of them were glaring in his direction. He scratched the back of his neck. "What?"

"Who's responsible for the lack of supplies, Luffy?" Nami prompted again.

He looked genuinely puzzled. "Why are the two of you looking at me like I know the answer to that?"

"Because you're the one who packed our supplies, Luffy," Coby clarified with a patience he didn't feel, appealing to his logic that he knew was lying dormant somewhere in that head of is. "Therefore, you are the one at fault for not packing enough."

But Luffy's eyes had already glazed over in the middle of his explanation. He stifled a yawn, then pulled his straw hat down low over his face. "Okay. I forgive you."

Then he was asleep to the world and snoring loud enough to wake the dead.

Coby took a deep breath and blew it out in small increments to control his rising temper. By the end of this journey - if they even managed to finish it by some miracle - he expected to be awarded a medal of sainthood for tolerating Luffy.

A glance at Nami told the same story, though she seemed to be much better at taking it in stride. Besides for the single furrowed brow, she appeared to be pretty well composed.

"How long have you been travelling with him again?" she asked when they made eye contact.

"It's only been a few hours actually." Coby rotated his stiff shoulders forward and backwards. "Feels like an eternity though."

The redhead shook her head with sympathy. "I'm so sorry."

There was definitely a maniacal edge to his smile when his lips curled. He wasn't feeling overtly sane. "Save it for yourself. You'll need it."

* * *

It didn't take long for there to be sight of land between Nami setting up a makeshift sail to catch the wind and her expert sense of direction, guiding them towards the nearest island from her memory. It was home to a small Marine base, and she was all too aware of the dangers looming ahead for the wannabe Pirates (she refused to acknowledge them as real Pirates or an actual crew; she couldn't even take their captain seriously, for Devils sake) which in turn meant trouble for her as well since she was tagging along.

Nami would have preferred to skip that town entirely, but their extreme lack of basic provisions and daily necessities - she gave her temporary captain a pointed look - was forcing her hand. She forced herself to run her dilemma by Luffy as there were unspoken rules on board a ship that she knew had to be followed for there to be order.

He, of course, proved to be of no help at all. Instead, the conversation just served to compound her indecision, bringing her back to square one and even more confused than before.

Coby actually thought it over with her like a normal human being would, and the two of them came to the decision that they had no choice but to dock right under the noses of their enemies and hope for the best. They were in dire straits and the next island was two or three more days' worth of sailing away, and that was with favourable wind.

Besides, they have no bounty as of yet, so they were relatively safe as long as they stayed under the radar and remained inconspicuous while they replenished their stocks.

Which meant keeping a close eye on a particular raven haired troublemaker.

The person in question was still snoozing away peacefully, having slunk into a more comfortable position sometime during his sleep. Lying horizontally with his straw hat engulfing his entire face, his prized possession would be lifted up into the air with each of his exhale, and almost collapse inwards on the middle itself on every inhale.

Nami felt the side of her lips tug up into a faint smile.

Night had fallen, and the thick darkness provided good cover when the trio reached shore. The redhead was surprised when there wasn't an army of uniform clad marines waiting to apprehend them for being public nuisances considering the amount of noise required to wake their captain up.

"Wer ah eee?" Luffy asked in the middle of a huge yawn, so it came out of his mouth totally incoherent. He repeated the question a heartbeat later. "Where are we?"

Coby, who was securing their small craft to a tree along the beach, answered, "I'm not entirely sure, to be honest. I didn't know there was a Marine base so close to Foosha Village."

He looked to their navigator, who raised both hands up to deflect the question. "Don't look at me, I just map them. I don't name them."

Luffy squinted at the town in the distance. Well, what are we waiting for then? Let's go and have some fun! The moron then proceeded to waltz off, whistling like their every actions were being monitored by the Marines.

"Luffy," Nami hissed when she caught up to her maddeningly cheerful captain, "didn't you hear what Coby said? We are on an island with a Marine Base!"

"So?" His expression brightened. "Maybe I'll get to see gramps here!"

"Your grandpa? Why would you see him here?"

"He's a Marine."

"What?!" Nami's voice went unnaturally high.

"He's a vice-admiral, actually," Coby added helpfully from the side, carrying a small pack with whatever stuff they had left on his shoulders. "His name is Garp. You might have heard of him."

Luffy continued trotting on as if Coby hadn't just dropped the biggest bomb in the world. Nami, on the other hand, froze. She felt her world drop off its axis, felt it slowly spin out of control. The Garp? Monkey D. Garp? The one who single-handedly defeated Shiki the Golden Lion and cornered the original Pirate King numerous times during his reign?"

"I dunno." Luffy stacked his hands behind his head and resumed whistling.

"How can you not know what your grandpa did?!"

"He's just gramps to me," Luffy answered simply, "I don't care about anything else."

Coby sighed before addressing her unanswered query. Yes, the one and only Garp. The imbecile over there is actually Monkey D. Luffy, proof of his lineage." He shook his head wearily. "Though I cannot begin to conceive how a man as great as him can end up having a descendent like him."

Luffy didn't seem too bothered by what Coby said. He was more engrossed trying to snag a coconut just out of his reach, and was jumping up and down while flailing his arms about like a panicked turkey. Finally, after close to a minute, their panting and red-faced captain hollered out to them, bested by a high-lying fruit. "Oei, come and help me!"

Nami stared at him, then back at Coby. "Maybe he's adopted."

* * *

Trekking to the town was an uneventful affair, but Nami figured that it's for the best. She had enough excitement to last her a lifetime already, and the respite was much welcomed. In a corner of her mind however, there was a tingling sense of foreboding that warned her there was much, much more to come.

It was close to midnight when they arrived. The town, small and quaint, was still easily double the size of her own village. Most of the locals had retired back to their homes for the night, and those that were still on the streets hurried to return to the safety of their houses. The layout of the streets and alleyways were hard to navigate in the day due to the high walls and houses obscuring any view of adjacent areas, and it was virtually impossible at night. It didn't help that the darkness seemed all-encompassing, trapping them in and slowly closing in on them. Nami was starting to feel abnormally claustrophobic.

The search for an inn was proving to be quite futile as a result. Granted, they had only scoured a small portion of the town, but the redhead thought it to be highly peculiar for a settlement of this size to not have inns popping up at every corner. If her memory served her well, she recalled this island to be a bustling port and a prosperous hub for trading due to its relatively centralized position in East Blue as well as the ever-looming presence of the Marines.

This town was supposed to be safe. Shielded from harm. Untouchable.

"It's darker than usual," she commented casually, wondering if her eyes were playing tricks on her when her vision narrowed, blanketed by layers upon layers of swirling gloom.

Coby's voice was unsteady when he replied. "Yeah. This isn't normal." He turned to Luffy. "What do you think?"

Only at the mention of their captain's name did Nami glance at the raven-haired boy, and she was hit by a wave of panic at his creased brow, the deep frown and tense set of his shoulders. Luffy was never perturbed for no small reason. "There's lots of power in the air," he said quietly, "I don't like it. Let's get off the streets as soon as possible."

She and Coby agreed whole-heartedly, and they sped up, resuming their search for a place to spend the night. Nami unknowingly found herself sub-consciously withdrawing into herself, as if her survival instincts were kicking in and wanted to shrink away from her surroundings as much as possible. She stuck closer to Luffy, and Coby was doing the exact same on the other side. His presence was as steadying and calming as an anchor in the tumultuous sea. She felt infinitely better after just a minute of being literally pasted to his side.

During that time, Nami noticed several shady figures loitering in the flickering shadows the dark alleyways provided. Shivers crept down her spine when she felt their piercing stares on her and she hugged herself, feeling inexplicably cold and uncomfortable all of a sudden. "Can we get out of here, Luffy?" she pleaded to her captain. "Let's head back. I don't want to spend another minute here."

"There!" Coby jabbed a finger at a low-rise red stucco building with the words "Inn" on the wooden block hanging rather haphazardly from two strings above the front of the door. The interior was dimly lit up, and it looked modest enough though at that moment, even a run-down shack would do for Nami. She just wanted some sort of shelter to take refuge in before she becomes a permanent accessory at Luffy's side. With how she was clinging to him like a lifeline, it might not be too long.

They were at the door in an instant. Coby rapped against the solid double wooden doors, the deep sound stemming from it reverberating throughout the silence. They waited for a few seconds, and it was Nami who stepped forth to knock again, much more sharply and forcefully this time. "Hurry and open up, or I swear I'll – "

"Hold your horses lady," a low, rumbling voice groused out from inside, followed by heavy shuffling punctuated by curses every few seconds, and judging by the racket caused, he was probably bumping into furniture and knocking them over. "Don't break my bloody door. It costs a fortune to replace."

The doors opened once the sentence was finished, revealing a huge heavy-set man with a giant moustache staring down at them – literally – with narrowed eyes. He was easily triple Luffy's size, and almost double his height. His bulk, however, didn't look that solid. He was more meat than muscle, but his proportions alone was enough to intimidate. Nami's mouth dropped open and she took a step back, while Coby blinked disbelievingly up at the man.

Luffy's reaction was to clap his hands in unbridled glee. "You're a giant! How cool!" He strode over and poked the man in the side at his waist, as that was where he came up to at chest level. "SO COOOOL! You're bigger than even gramps!" the raven-haired boy gushed with adoration. "Can you teach me how to be as big as you?! Do you want to join my crew, giant sir? You have to say yes!"

"HE CAN'T FIT ON OUR BOAT, LUFFY!"

"HE'LL SINK THE BOAT, LUFFY!"

Coby and Nami protested in unison. The redhead strode over and grabbed her captain by the collar and pulled him off the immobile man, disregarding his whining. "I'm so sorry," Nami apologized sheepishly, "my captain has the tendency to speak his mind without thinking. Please don't take his words seriously."

"It's quite alright." Words uttered with a trace of amusement, though his face was still as stoic as ever. "We don't get many travellers as much as before, so we close earlier nowadays." He shook his head. "A real shame. Business has been on the decline ever since that group of vermins arrived. Even the Marines are reluctant to do anything about the activities they engage in. More like they're too afraid, those spineless bustard." His mouth tightened into a grim line momentarily before he smacked his forehead. "My, my, where are my manners? I apologize for my ranting. Come in, come in. I'm getting rusty, what with the lack of customers. Won't want you all getting petrified outside now, would we? My name is Hoof, and I own this humble abode. There's plenty of available rooms. How many nights are you intending to stay here?"

"My name's Nami." The redhead raised her hand. "Pinky's Coby and that idiot is our captain, Luffy."

Hoof nodded in acknowledgement before snaking one long arm around all three of their shoulders. "P-Petrified?" Coby piped up meekly as the three of them were ushered inside by the big man. "What do you mean by that?"

Hoof closed the door tightly before sliding a few locks in place. He took a few moments to ensure that they were secured in place before giving the pink haired boy a weird look. "You mean you guys aren't aware of what's going on in this town?"

"No," Nami replied, her tone worried, "we just got here."

"Ah, I guess that explains why you're still here. Most people who get here don't even stay for more than a few minutes before leaving. I assume you got here after dark?"

"Yeah. It was already after sunset when we reached here."

The innkeeper lumbered over to the wooden counter - not much of a surprise, seeing how almost everything in the inn was made of wood. Cheaper to replace if he broke any of them, Nami guessed, with the evidence of his clumsiness strewn over the floor.

Besides for the toppled over chairs and tables, the interior of the inn felt very homely despite being sparsely furnished. It was warm and cosy from the small fireplace at the corner beside a spiralling staircase leading up to the upper floor. The floor was carpeted, the color bland and thinly threaded from usage over the years, but still furry and comfortable beneath their feet. Luffy was already reclining in a padded armchair, totally at home.

Hoof knelt down next to the countertop, and he let loose another curse which accompanied a sound of solid contact. "Bloody drawers and cramped spaces," Nami heard him grumble to himself before he straightened with a thick book in his hands. There was a thin layer of dust on the page he flipped to and he blew it off, sending it all into the air. "You're the second group of travellers I've had this month. The first also came after dark, and they didn't see the sign."

Coby waved a hand in front of him as if it would make the dust particles disappear. "What sign?"

Setting the book onto the table with a resounding thud that echoed around the room, Hoof heaved out a sigh. Hanging his head, he appeared to have an internal conflict with himself for a long while before raising it with sorrowful eyes. "I guess there's no point withholding this information from you all. You all are stuck here indefinitely anyway." He motioned for Nami and Coby to keep their questions for later after seeing how they were on the verge of firing a stream his way. "Let me explain. This island was deemed unsafe for habitation by the World Government not long ago. I'm sure you've noticed by now that the night seems... For a lack of a better word, different? More vicious, more alive?"

Nami and Coby nodded vigorously. "It's like it has a mind of its own," the navigator said softly, irrationally afraid that if she spoke too loudly, the darkness will swallow her in retaliation.

"It's suspected to be a Devil Fruit ability."

Luffy who was dozing off beside the fireplace snapped to full attention. "Devil Fruit ability? What kind of power is this?"

Hoof lifted his massive shoulders in a sign of helplessness. "I'm in the dark on the matter as well - pardon the pun. It definitely has something to do with that pirate crew that recently set up camp here. The Marines have yet to release an official statement as well, though it seems that they're withholding it from us to keep the townspeople from panicking. Many people have fallen ill after being exposed to the darkness for too long and they're... Just not right anymore. It's like their very soul has been crushed, leaving behind a skeleton of their former self. The World Government is afraid it's contagious, so this is island is supposed to be totally cordoned off. Nobody is to leave this island after they arrive here for the time being."

Dread settled in the pit of Nami's stomach and made itself comfortable. "And how long have you people been quarantined so far?"

"Two months and counting."

"So we're stuck here until the matter is solved?" Luffy looked way too casual and delighted for Nami's liking and she headed over to whack him over the head.

"At least sound a little concerned, would you?" she chided while grinding her knuckles against the top of her captain's head, nimbly dodging his swinging arms trying to extricate himself from her grasp. "We could be stuck here for months!" She didn't have that kind of time. Arlong was expecting her back soon, and if she didn't make an appearance...

Nami didn't want to follow that nauseating train of thought.

"Aww, let me go Nami!"

She did the opposite, applying more force and Luffy's struggling went up by a magnitude. "What's being done to find out about the cause of this problem? What are the Marines of World Government up to?"

"We don't know." The dismay was apparent in Hoof's tone. "Every week, the Marines promise it'll be resolved the next week. But from what I've seen, no progress is being made. I have heard rumors that an admiral has been dispatched here, but it'll take at least a week more for him to arrive."

"This is ridiculous. Are the Marines here so incompetent that they're unable to help their _own_ fucking island?" Nami raged, and Luffy took advantage of the opportunity to slip out of her hold with a small bout of his power. He appeared on the other side of the room a split second later, and the redhead released a little exclamation from the minor jolt of energy that passed through her body.

The innkeeper's eyes widened. "You're a Devil Fruit user as well?"

Luffy, steadily avoiding his navigator's scorching glare, smiled at Hoof. "Yep! I'm an energy man."

"I've never heard of such a fruit before."

Luffy's smile widened. "Me neither."

"But you still ate it? Why would you do that?"

"You'll understand if you spend enough time with him," said Coby dryly.

Hoof's expression turned contemplative. He paced back and forth for close to a minute with Coby and Nami tracking his movement with their eyes tiredly. Luffy had taken up the responsibility of being the one to find something to snack on and was ransacking through the cupboards. His enthusiasm unparalleled, Luffy bounded from one cupboard to another and made quick work of anything edible he could find. It was all fine and dandy, and Hoof didn't seem to give a hoot about him turning his inn upside down, but the commotion he was causing grated against Nami's already frazzled nerves. "KEEP IT DOWN, WILL YOU, LUFFY?!"

Hoof startled at the sound of her voice, like he had forgotten that they were in the same room as him. He scrubbed a hand down his face and took a deep breath. "I tend to drift off; forgive my foolish tendency. You three are probably tired." He returned behind the counter and gestured for them to gather there. "I'll need some of your information as per standard procedure, and for the payment… we'll discuss that some other day." He tugged at the collar of his shirt uneasily. "There's a town meeting tomorrow morning. Would you come with me? We, ah, need someone of your calibre and skills, straw-hat boy. I might not know the full range of your abilities yet, but I'm sure you'll be a big help to us. What do you all say?"

Nami, all for helping the man solve the issue as soon as possible so they could get back on the road, hesitated in agreeing so readily. Something about his obvious discomfort put her off. "What kind of plans do this council have in mind?" she asked.

The innkeeper cleared his throat bashfully, striking her as a kid caught with his hand down the cookie jar. "A team is being assembled to strike back," he replied finally, and there was truth in his words. "But we are a small town after all, and traders or fishermen by trait. We don't have anybody remotely strong. Strong enough to stand a chance against the perpetrator, anyway." His wandering eyes landed on their captain. "Which is why we'll need you, Luffy. To be frank, I think the mayor knows very well that it's practically suicide to send men in without knowing what we're up against. The team is more likely expected to scout and report their findings. Information is key to victory and all that, you know."

Hoof grimaced. "But the men are fearful. They've lost their will to fight after seeing how some of their fellow friends can no longer be called humans after being exposed to the darkness for an extended period of time. Only a handful of volunteers are on board, and the numbers aren't enough."

"So you want me to rally the townspeople. Show them that all hope is not lost," Luffy deduced, playing with the frayed ends of his straw hat.

"Exactly. With you leading the team, I'm sure that there'll be more men willing to join it. After you show them a glimpse of what you're capable of." When he didn't get an immediate reply from the raven-haired boy, Hoof quickly back-pedalled. "I don't mean to impose, and if you don't want to, I guess we can – "

Her captain laughed. Fucking _laughed._ "Let's do it."

Coby was in agreement as well from how he gave Luffy a thumbs up, and Nami found herself being torn between doing what's right and what could possibly endanger all of their lives. All her life, she had always put herself first. It was a survival instinct ingrained in her from young. She would never help others if it meant putting her life at stake. But her captain… Luffy went in full speed ahead without caring about the repercussions, so long as he thought it was right.

Just like when he saved her from that Sea King.

She blew out a resigned breath. Maybe it's time to make a change. She would only be around for a short period of time anyway; might as well earn some good karma to offset whatever bad ones she had garnered so far. And the Sea Devil only knew that she had them in excess. "The captain's decision is final. We set out tomorrow."

Coby and Luffy shared a room, while Nami had one to herself for "reasons". She had refused to elaborate when Luffy tried to probe further for he, for the life of him, couldn't figure out why they couldn't all just stay in one room together. It'll be more convenient for communication as well as for him to keep an eye on his nakama. Because despite his assumed indifference to the situation, it was all an act to put Nami and Coby at ease. A facade to not stress them out any further than necessary. He was aware of how they relied on him to tell the severity of the problem more often than not; and Luffy knew with disconcerting clarity that the little predicament they had stumbled into unknowingly was going to blow up in their face very soon.

Shit was about to hit the proverbial fan.

His powers of energy manipulation allows him to detect the subtle changes in the flow of the matter around him in an area, and the air was saturated with a heavy suffocating magic. It was uncomfortable and choking in its thickness, and also intelligent in the way it constantly shifted and reformed itself. He had utilised his powers to push the surrounding air molecules outwards, creating a sort of barrier between them and the darkness, keeping it at bay, though he kept that a secret from his nakama too.

He had a niggling suspicion what the magic would do to them if it had enough time to wear them down mentally upon engulfing them, but he didn't want to ascertain them. It was too risky, and the safety of his crew members always preceded anything else.

He also managed to discover that darkness seemingly to come from all directions was in fact only present in a small, albeit highly concentrated quantity. He had sensed the gathering of a dark presence the moment they set foot in town, and it coalesced into the malevolent magic intent on sucking the very life out of them.

Luffy suspected that it to be a Logia-type Devil Fruit much like his, but one that allowed much more freedom and control of its basic element. The user had likely found another use for the Devil Fruit, and might be experimenting it on the unlucky townspeople for its effectiveness.

Some things still didn't add up, however, and Luffy hated not being able to put two and two together.

Staring up at the rotating fan attached to the ceiling, the raven-haired captain willed for sleep to claim him. Coby was already snoring quietly beside him, and Luffy was exhausted enough that it should have been easy to fall into a deep slumber, but it continued to evade him like the most frustrating of prey.

He was worried, he realised. For the well-being of his friends, for the journey ahead, and all the obstacles they would inevitably face. He hadn't expected to meet any resistance for a while, and to be presented one so early... It just served to remind him that things don't always go according to plan.

And more importantly, it's high time to invest some time into coming up with a plan B.

It wasn't until the wee hours of the morning did Luffy finally succumb to fatigue, the swirling darkness just beyond the walls a harsh memory that his problems were only just beginning.

* * *

A cloaked figure sat in the middle of an abandoned warehouse located at the outskirts of town, entrenched in complete darkness save for a small light cast by a lit lantern on the uneven cement ground. It was more for his lackeys' benefit than his own - the man was able to see perfectly well in the dark.

After all, he literally controlled it.

The murk looked to be eating away at the solitary light source, battling with it for supremacy. The stream of illumination flickered threateningly as the flame within the lantern performed a slow dance to its increasingly imminent death, much to the panic of the men circling it. There was an outcast among the men, someone who sat a distance away from the rest. His hair was a hue of green, and on his right hip resided three swords bundled up with a green _haramaki._ He didn't seem as bothered as the rest by the gloominess of it all, or maybe it was because of the alcohol he was chugging down at an astonishing rate that dulled his senses.

Hushed, agitated whispers filled the silence as trembling hands around the lantern fumbled with a lighter to feed the disappearing flame. Some part of them knew that without that light, they would lose their very sanity.

"I've gathered all of you here tonight for a very specific reason, gentlemen." The cloaked figure began to speak, rising from his folded position in a strange manner, like deformed limbs struggling to work in unison and succeeding only partially. His voice was calm - eerily so. "The one we've been waiting for has finally arrived. And he is strong. Oh, he is so strong. He might even be strong enough to be the final ingredient the _Mozaru Hantas_ need." An inhumane cackle that had their hair all on end, though the mere mention of the legendary group of barbaric Pirates would already have sufficed. "Capture him. Bring him to me."

A gust of wind snagged the hood of the man shrouded in shadows, and pulled it back to reveal their boss that had hired them. The bounty hunters only saw his visage for a split second before darkness descended over him once again, but it was an image that would forever haunt them in their sleep.

"His name is Luffy D. Monkey. I want him alive."

* * *

 **A/N: Hola! I'm back, and with an even longer chapter this time. Jesus, this was hard to write.**

 **So, who do you think the new character is? No reward for guessing his identity - it's kind of obvious, no? So anyway, since the Marine is pretty much inactive in this arc, unlike in canon, I suppose that Zoro wouldn't have been caught and imprisoned in the first place, so Luffy will meet the swordsman in a less desirable way. heheheh**

 **The action is heating up! There'll be a huge fight scene coming soon, and following that, a grand reveal of the antagonists for the first part of this story, the Devil Fruit hunters. I won't spoil y'all too much, but all in good time!**

 **Now, the reviews... (Thanks for all the support, guys! If you're liking the story, do tell me! If you're not, you can tell me which part I should improve on as well :)**

 **Iitrnr:** Thanks so much, you don't know how much that means. That chapter took me crazy long to write because it was hard to envision how Nami would react to Luffy on their first meeting. Given the circumstances, and his personality... yeah it wasn't fun to write, but I'm glad you enjoyed it!

 **BigMasetheDon:** Two thumbs and two toes up for the compliment! Thanks alot :)

 **Devlin Dracul:** Heh, I didn't want to overdo it with the attraction, but there's just something about Luffy that causes people to gravitate towards him. You just can't _not_ like him, and that's how I want to portray him in this story. Yeah, and she appeared very vulnerable in that chapter because of the whole emotional rollercoaster she had been through. You can hardly blame her, being at death's door twice in a row, and being saved by a boy younger than you who doesn't seem to have enough intelligence to fill a matchbox... I'll be a mental wreck as well! Well, that finger move was supposed to be really cool and show how much damage Luffy could do with so little effort, but yes, now that you mention it, it does remind me of DBZ quite abit :P ah, sweet childhood.

 **MakubeDaKiddX:** Hello! Thanks for the review. Good to hear that from you :) I'm not 100% sure as of right now, but with the inclusion of new crew members that weren't in canon, I already have four in mind. You'll see in future chapters how that goes!

 **Jonseyv2.0:** Nami and Luffy will be the main pairing for awhile, since there's no more girls being added until the next few arcs XD

 **Von Remington:** Great! Yeah, the timeline will be quite different from canon in this story, with additional of original characters to support my main storyline. Hope you'll enjoy it!

 **Treeplethreat:** Thanks for the compliment ;) The reindeer joke just kind of came to me and I had to add that in.

 **F-ckthesystem125:** Probably not! I like to keep the crew as close to canon as possible, but like I mentioned before, some things happen that I can't stop, and the story has a way of killing off characters it doesn't like... Thanks for reviewing! :)

 **So that's it! Once again, read and review and tell me what you guys think of this chapter!**

 **Till next time, ciao!**


	6. Chapter 6

**_Chapter 6: Warming Up_**

* * *

"You're up early."

Luffy didn't even spare the familiar feminine voice a glance, having heard the creaking of the stairs when Nami was making her way down slowly. And if that wasn't enough, he was also aware of the movement in the air and energy shifting from one form to another in her wake. In the beginning when Luffy had just acquired his powers, the sensory overload gave him a massive headache as he was unable to digest the information fast enough. It was always at the forefront of his thoughts and highly disturbing. Every small movement by anything in a small radius around him was registered by his improved senses in such excruciating detail it hindered his normal thought processes. He learnt quickly how to push them all to the back of his mind and file them away for reviewing in the future. Now, the information build-up was more like static in the background to him, gradually getting louder over time as more and more was hoarded away.

This methodical mental procedure he had gotten accustomed to affected his daily life as well. He found that he got more tidy and organised with his belongings, and his outlook on problem solving morphed to a step-by-step approach.

He was becoming more rational. Calculative.

It felt strange to gauge the consequences of his every move, to ruminate about the possible backlash and how to minimise it.

So just like with his powers, he actively blocked that part out unless the situation called for it. Where was the fun in acting without impulse?

"Couldn't sleep," Luffy replied, admiring the sunrise through a window that turned the sky a few gorgeous shades of orange and scarlet. Above it all, he liked how it chased away the shadows. His brain dimly matched the colour with Nami's head of hair, a fierce fiery red as it caught and shone in the light. "Unlike you. Slept like a log, huh?"

The sound of shuffling and cupboards being opened. "I don't think I've slept better in my life," said Nami honestly.

Luffy swivelled to look at Nami, and stopped in his tracks. The words he wanted to say died in his throat at the image of the redhead in a form-fitting short-sleeved top with a deep V and a barely there pair of shorts that left little to imagination, tip-toeing on both feet and one hand on the counter for balance, the other extended upwards to reach for a mug sitting on the top shelf. Her lips were puckered into a frown, and her ample chest was straining against its confines in a way that made his body feel uncomfortably hot. Her fully stretched position brought his attention to the generous curve of her ass and mile-long legs, her pale skin almost luminescent in the soft morning light seeping through the window.

Luffy blinked thrice in quick succession to clear his suddenly foggy mind, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't seem to shift his eyes off her. It was like he was hypnotised by the movements of her supple body and there was a foreign stirring below his waist, in a region that had remained dormant for his whole life until now. The sensation was strange and disconcerting in its intensity, but not wholly unpleasant. In fact, as it spread across his body, he was consumed by a sudden wave of desire to touch and discover for himself if her skin was as soft and yielding as it seemed.

Clenching her fists tightly by his side to fight the irrational compulsion, Luffy watched as she expelled a huff of irritation when her hand continued to brush the loop of the mocking cup, just out of her reach. Finally, she threw her hands up in surrender and glanced at him. "Could you please help me get that cup, Luffy? I can't reach it."

He nodded mutely, not trusting his voice at the moment. Walking over, he easily snatched the cup off the shelf and handed it over to the redhead.

Nami smiled, winked and skipped over to the sink to fill it with water. "Thanks captain!" After a long, satisfying dreg, she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. While washing the cup, she whirled her head back and said, "do you think it's safe to go out now? I'm hungry and you definitely are too. Wanna grab -"

She halted mid-sentence when she noticed that Luffy was no longer beside the window. Drying her hands with a towel, she frowned at her captain's straw hat hanging forlornly from the window sill, the only proof that he had been there before.

Did she say or do something wrong?

Maybe it was her breath. Blowing into her palm, she took a whiff and cringed. Nami hurried off to rectify the problem, stopped in her tracks, returned and grabbed the straw hat before resuming on her way to the toilet.

* * *

"Silence! The meeting shall only commence when there is absolute silence in the room!"

The tiny old man with an impressive graying beard who introduced himself as Rasfer banged his hand against the table repeatedly until the conversation and murmurs died down to a more manageable level. Luffy chuckled to himself when Rasfer grimaced and rubbed his hands together.

He and his crew had been roused from their sleep - he had went back to catch some z's after his run in with Nami - sometime before lunch to wash up and prepare for the meal. Not expecting too grand an affair, Luffy was shocked when a ten-course meal greeted him in the dining area. The two other members had been equally taken aback, but it was quickly ditched aside in favour of filling their grumbling tummies. Hoof explained that it was the least he could do as a sign of gratitude for their willingness to take on the job.

After all of them discovered their physical limitations imposed on them by their digestive system, the crew was whisked off to attend the meeting. It was held at the mayor's abode in a spacious empty multi-purpose room. A long table had been set up, along with seats of varying height and sturdiness that were placed at the side. By the time they had arrived, the discussion was already in full swing, and with a contrite tilt of his head towards the people Luffy assumed to be his fellow council members, Hoof had hurriedly veered them to their seats at the far end of the table. Only when each and everyone of the council had been accounted for did the official meeting begin.

At that moment, Nami levelled a stare his way that commanded him to behave, but there was a ghost of a smile on her lips as well. Her very plump, kissable cherry red -

The raven-haired boy coughed into his fist and swung his eyes back to Rasfer. He didn't know what to make of this newfound attraction towards his crewmate, and that's what it was - lust. He had read about that sometime during his childhood in some age old classic he had unearthed from Makino's expansive collection. Two lovers tragically torn apart due to their family's stubborn beliefs, they had eloped together and... Fornicated on many occasions to express their bottomless love for each other. He hadn't understood what the words nor illustrations meant at that time, but he was now seeing things from an entirely new perspective that had never occurred to his young and innocent mind. The very idea of performing such an intimate act with the pretty redhead made his cheeks heat up and his dick to twitch in anticipation.

When he had asked for a challenge, he never expected this to be it.

From what little he knew about women - a microscope might not even be able to discern it - he understood that they took proclamations of love very seriously. Furthermore, they only partook in such prurient and indecent activities after a declaration of engagement or marriage.

He had also heard rumours that some women took their maidenhood to their graves as they couldn't find a man they deemed suitable to lose it to.

It was all very vexing - Luffy couldn't begin to fathom why it was such a big deal. According to the book, it was just a form of physical release, though it was apparently incredibly pleasurable. He figured it was akin to defecation - the relief he associated it with wasn't something to scoff at.

So what's the big deal?

Perhaps he should inquire Nami about it sometime soon. Get it off his mind so he won't be so distracted by it. Maybe he'll also understand why he wanted to touch her so badly.

With that settled, Luffy gave his undivided attention to Rasfer who had, unbeknownst to him, already started the ball rolling. "... is getting worse," he was saying, "we've lost another three this week. At this rate, there'll be nothing left of this town in two months." He raised both hands - one of the palm reddened from recurring contact with the tabletop - to quell the dissent before it gathered in volume. "We have two choices at this point. Either we fight back to the best of our ability... Or we wait for the Marines to come to our rescue."

The erupting jeers and curses thrown out by the crowd the moment the Marines were mentioned were answer enough.

"The Marines are all talk. They don't care about our livelihood at all! No better than common thugs, I say," a wiry old man spat, brandishing his walking stick like a weapon, hitting a few people around him with his callous swinging.

"Agreed. We should stop sitting around and take initiative. Either way, we're already one foot in our coffins." Hoof was the one who offered this contribution.

Most, if not all of those present, inclined their heads in concurrence with the innkeeper's statement.

"Are you all fools?" A medium-built teenager no older than Luffy demanded, shooting up from his seated position in agitation. "We are just courting death if we were to go after those pirates alone. They're not ordinary people, if you haven't noticed. They possess powers beyond our wildest dreams and aren't afraid to use it. Any team we send in will perish for certain. Are you really going to just allow the death toll to rise, old man, for no reason?"

Rasfer bristled at the challenge in the youngster's tone. "Watch your words, Mony. You may be a part of the council because of your grandfather's last wish, but -"

"But what?" he sneered, "I'm too young to try to prevent you from destroying the town my grandfather built from scratch?"

"The longer we wait, the more casualties we suffer. We should make a move while we still have the strength."

"There you go jumping to conclusions again. Are your brains even functional anymore?" Mony wagged his index finger in a condescending manner. "The situation is under control. As long as we keep indoors after dark, nothing will happen to us. Those imbeciles deserve it for wandering outside even though they had been warned."

Rasfer's eyes flashed black. "Why you disrespectful little -"

"Then what do you suggest, Mony?" Hoof butted in to break apart the heated debate. "We're open to any idea as long as it's feasible."

There was a long drawn out stretch of fretful noiselessness, no doubt on purpose by Mony who ran his tongue over his teeth. "It's very simple actually. We wait it out. This is some strong magic at work here, but whoever is behind this can't possibly keep it up forever. Eventually, he or she will tire. And by then, the Admiral will definitely be here to tie up any loose ends. Nobody else has to be needlessly sacrificed."

"This could take months!" The old man from before rebuked, his walking stick pointed at his younger comrade threateningly. It spoke volumes about their camaraderie - or lack thereof. "You are naive and immature, Mony. You might grow up to be a capable leader in the future, but right now you are a pest who fails to look beyond the immediate future."

Mony wasn't provoked. Instead, he smiled calmly. "Preach as much as you want to while you still can, geezer. Your expiration date is close anyway." The sketchy warning issued, he went ahead to address the remaining members. "It seems like we are at an impasse. Let me remind all of you to choose the side you take wisely, because the fate of the town – as well as the lives of you and your family – are at stake. I hope most of you aren't intellectually challenged and are able to see the truth in my words." Having said his piece, Mony took his leave without a backward glance, but not before bowing sarcastically to the mayor in farewell.

Shock rendered most of the council speechless, so there was complete stillness for a brief moment before the animated chattering resumed with more gusto than before. Everybody was throwing out their thoughts, talking over each other in an attempt to be heard. It was a total mess, and any effort made towards reining in the conversation was ineffective as there was an undertone of panic among the attendees.

And panic had a way of turning the most level-headed individuals into primitive mammals that acted on instinct, spurring them to make unprecedentedly rash decision.

Luffy, oblivious to the chaos around him, yawned loud enough for everybody to stop and gape at his lack of poise. He yawned so hard droplets of tears were squeezed out from his eyes and he rubbed at it with one hand, the other preoccupied with the task of excavating his ear.

The image was so Luffy-ish Nami almost burst out laughing.

Almost, but no.

Nami hid her face in her hands out of blistering mortification and a need to pretend that in a perfect world, if she willed hard enough, she will find herself in the middle of her house back at Cocoyashi village when the heat receded from her face. Coby made a small strangled sound beside her, and cautiously, she peeked out from in between her fingers to find out what idiocy Luffy had engaged in next.

He was now fully sprawled out on his chair with both of his legs propped up on the table, his feet still clad in the sandals. He wriggled his toes belatedly, and the petite lady opposite him wrinkled her nose in disdain and sashayed over to fill Mony's now empty seat. "Ah, that was a nice nap." Luffy gave the flabbergasted onlookers a contented smile. "What did I miss?"

Nami elbowed him in the side sharply. "Shut up," she hissed.

"Who is this kid, Hoof?" Rasfer asked the innkeeper sternly, "you should know very well that no outsiders are allowed within this four walls. They should be removed immediately."

Hoof came to their rescue before any of them could be bullied out. "They're my guests." His narrowed eyes dared the two burly men that were approaching the crew to take any steps further. They skidded to a stop. "And I think it's about time I explain my plan to you all. Don't be hasty and take any sides just yet; hear me out and then we can take a vote."

"This boy here" - he patted Luffy on the shoulder, causing him to jerk up in surprise and topple the entire chair over with him - "is a Devil Fruit user." He sighed and spread his arms out, palms up. "He might not look like much - what?"

Following the direction of their widened eyes and muffled gasps, Hoof took a long moment to take in the scene before him that defied the very laws humans were bound by.

Luffy, looking mildly miffed by the inconvenience, was still lying on the chair, but the chair itself appeared to be supported by an apparition of some sort as it had stopped in the midst of pitching over in an angle he once considered impossible. The back of the chair was only inches from meeting the marble floor - so close it was almost parallel.

And then, slowly but surely, the chair tilted back upwards with Luffy still on it, yawning away as if such an incident happened on a daily basis for him.

This caused a number of council members to vault to their feet in amazement, craning their necks for a better view.

When the chair righted itself back to its original position, Hoof couldn't wait a single second more before he said, "that's exactly what I mean by he has powers. His name is Luffy, and he has agreed to help us lead a team to find the person causing the problem, getting rid of him or her if he's able to."

Rasfer was the first to recover from the stupor, his expression guarded, but there was a glimmer of hope in his eyes that wasn't there before. "You're way too optimistic, Hoof," he said, eyeing Luffy intently, "how's an ability like that going to help us? It seems more like a magic trick rather than anything remotely effective enough to dispel the magic, much less bring down the culprit."

Coby was up on his feet in a flash to defend his captain. "You have no idea what he's capable of. Don't belittle him."

Luffy laughed and ambled over, clapping his friend good-naturedly on the back hard enough that he nearly careened over the table. "Ah, don't worry, Coby. It's all good." He angled his head at the mayor, and subsequently the rest of the council members who seemed to be reassessing him. "Like my crew member said. I might not seem like much, but I'm more than qualified for this job. I'll be able to defeat whoever's responsible. You can take my word for it."

Hoof was the next to gather back his wits. "This is the best chance we'll ever have, people. How often do we have new visitors in town now? And the odds of someone who has a Devil Fruit power coming here? Even lesser. We have to strike now, while we stand a chance," he implored.

"I'm with Hoof on this," a pretty woman with blonde curls on the plump side cut in, having been quiet the entire time until now. Her opinion apparently carried a decent amount of weight as all whispering ceased. She had everybody's utmost attention. "I think I'm speaking for every one present here when I say that we've all lost someone close to us to this revolting magic. Don't we all want to take our revenge?"

A middle-aged man with a humongous belly disagreed. "Not at the cost of more lives, Vena."

The woman known as Vena _tsk_ ed. "Are you hearing yourself, Mano? Where did all that bravado from last week go to?"

"It died with my brother." A flat reply.

Someone coughed and it filled the awkward silence. Then, "we all lost someone, Mano," Vena reminded him gently, and then looked around the room. "We have to do this to avoid losing anymore. Offense is the best defence, and normally I wouldn't agree with this, but when you're drowning and a lifeline presents itself in front of you, shouldn't you reach out and continue struggling to survive rather than letting yourself sink?"

Mano lowered his head with a heavy sigh. "When you put it like that…"

"I'm in."

"Me too."

One by one, the council members voiced out their approval for the plan, until there was only one person left. Vena's gaze softened visibly when she looked at him. "Brumi," Vena prompted in a reverent tone, her respect evident. "We have all the votes we need. But your consent will mean a lot to us."

"And if you don't manage to take down the culprit?" The walking-stick-old-man asked bluntly, critically, staring at Luffy. "I have to play the Devil's advocate here, unfortunately. The worst-case scenario is you lose. The entire team we send gets wiped out. The town will be at their mercy. Why should we trust you, stranger?"

Luffy pushed himself off his perch on the table. "It's really simple, old man. I made a promise to someone long ago." He took off the straw hat on his head and clutching it close to his chest, he bowed deeply to him. "I'm Monkey D. Luffy, and I'm going to be the next Pirate King. In order to do that…"

He grinned widely. "I _refuse_ to lose."

 **TBC**

* * *

 **A/N: Hello peeps! This is a shorter chapter, one with more emphasis on the politics in the town and the build-up leading to the fights. Heh. The fight is not going to be what you're expecting, and the characters involved.. probably even more so. From what I've gathered, most of y'all will be pretty surprised by the direction this arc is going. I hope it's a PLEASANT surprise though!**

 **So, new year, new you right? I've made decent progress with my resolutions! First, I'm writing almost EVERYDAY, which is a huge achievement. I'm grinding out at least a thousand words everyday, so that's why the updates are coming pretty quickly. I've also gained almost 5kg worth of pure muscle, and am near 80kg now at 185cm. Going to keep working hard so I can get that ripped body I've always wanted but never had the perseverance and determination to go all the way for. What are some of your resolutions? Share them with me! :D**

 **Now, the reviews...**

 **Devlin Dracul:** I'm going to have to keep kind of mum about your review, in case I spoil you for the next chapter... but let me just say that something in your review isn't right. :P (you'll see soon enough!)

 **Sarene Mun:** Your reviews are always so energetic and full of capitalized letters reading them seem to give me energy! Thanks for the review 3

 **BigBoss0694x:** Hey man! Yep, this arc actually kind of "creeped" up on me. I didn't want to have an arc so early, but when I was typing away, it suddenly decided to present itself to me and urge me to slot it in, so I did. And it seems to work out quite well as I can insert new characters in and develop the storyline that I'm heading towards. This will be pretty epic, actually, with the fights I have planned. Stay tuned, yeah!

 **Guest:** Since there's two reviews with the same writing style and impeccable grammar/punctuation, I'm assuming it's the same guy :P so hello, thank you SO MUCH for the correction on the shichibukai and yonko portion. I definitely got that mixed up. Now, regarding Alvida, she will appear at some point in the story (remember how I mentioned Shanks fucked her up badly when he rescued Coby?) but I don't have any plans for her currently. Partially because Coby is in the crew, and I don't see them getting along well due to their past, and hence affect the crew's chemistry, but also because I don't think a change of looks equate to a change of heart. So her personality will still be pretty bad, despite her flawless appearance. I don't want that kind of girl in the harem, and I'm pretty sure Luffy won't go for a girl like that either... but y'know, like I always say, you never know how the story will flow until you start writing that portion! I have a few girls in mind for the harem already, and some of the names you mention might or might not have been considered... I won't spoil you right now, but there's another one I've thought of that might be a pretty decent addition. Zoro and Tashigi is something I want to explore as well, and... I think I've let too much spill already. You'll just have to wait and see what I have planned ;) Thanks for the great ideas and reviews!

 **MakubeDaKiddX:** I originally wanted to follow canon, but it's boring. I hate boring. So, you know, this arc gives me the opportunity to change things up and give it a twist. ;) Hope you enjoy the next few chapters, because it'll only get more intense!

 **.3950:** YES. my sentiments exactly! Coby got like this intense growth spurt and a crash course in fashion 101. He looks much better after the time-skip, and that's how he is currently in my story. Luffy will be spoilt for choice very soon. The harem will slowly come together, but for the moment, Nami is all he has. I really want to develop the relationship there more first, as lots of harem stories are incredibly shallow and I find it kinda ridiculous, so the rest of the girls will just have to wait... Okay, for the story-line, that's canon, so I'll be deviating quite a lot from it. I might be skipping certain parts and I'll mention in the author note that everything in that arc went according to canon. If it's a self-made arc by me, then I'll write it out. That way, more time is saved and we can get right to the juicy, dirty bits. ;)

 **So thank you to everybody who has reviewed! I really appreciate it. Till next time, _ciao!_**


	7. Chapter 7

**EDIT: I'll like to give a huge thank you to everybody who pointed out what a huge idiot I am to insert in that large chunk of history that has little to no relevance to this chapter. I'm not entirely sure what I was thinking either, but I thought it was a good idea at that time since it was due time for me to do some explaining of the new additions in this world, but yeah, maybe that wasn't too hot. Please pardon me for making such a amateur mistake; hopefully I won't do something like that again in the future. (I probably will, tbh)**

* * *

 _ **Chapter 7:**_ _ **Bounty**_

* * *

They set off at the crack of dawn.

The slanted rays of gold that peeked over the horizon, however weak, chased away the gloom of last night's darkness. The town had the subdued quiet typically associated with the early hours of morning, but Luffy could still feel an underlying menace beneath the layers of silence. It was slowly making way, pulling back with reluctance as the growing illumination chipped away at it.

The rising ball of fire filled the sky with splashes of red and yellow, the clouds with rays of pink. The rivers and lakes were bathed in brilliant gold, leaving the group speechless with its beauty. Nami actually stopped and stared, spellbound for a long moment till Coby nudged her with his shoulder to move her along. She allowed herself to be dragged by him, just so she could stare awhile longer.

The trio were joined by only one of the townsfolk; his sole purpose of tagging along to be their guide through the dense forest at the edge of town that led to where the concentration of magic was at its strongest. The Devil Fruit appraiser of the town couldn't pinpoint the exact location, but had identified the area, a circle of radius roughly 50 metres or so.

Rasfer had offered to send along more men - strength in numbers, he had insisted - but Luffy had declined and would not budge on his decision. He reasoned that he was more comfortable with his current crew, and if things did go awry, he didn't want his hands to be stained red from the blood spilled. He will ensure protection of his crew, but might not be able to extend the same assurance to the townsfolk. After all, his foremost duty was to his crewmembers, and them only.

"We're here." The wiry young man reported to him when they reached the end of the road, looking nervous and jittery. "The forested area begins just North of here. I wish you all the best, Mr. Luffy. We will be waiting for your return with good news." He hightailed out of there with impressive speed for his stature.

"Well." Coby tugged at his neckerchief uncomfortably, staring after the disappearing figure with envious eyes. "We still have a distance to go and this place already gives me the creeps."

"Let's get it over with then," Nami grumbled, hefting the bag of supplies higher over her shoulder. "The faster we bring down that fella, the faster we can get out of here."

"Lighten up guys! Think of this as a field trip into the unknown!" Luffy said cheerfully, walking energetically off the marked path and onto the unkempt, dense long grass that tickled at their bare ankles.

Nami didn't deign that absurd suggestion worthy of a reply of any kind, so she kept her mouth shut.

Coby wasn't on the same page as her. "How could you be so chipper about this? We could actually die, Luffy. Remember what the Devil Fruit appraiser said? It reeks of danger and malice, and they're hardly wrong." The Berudians were virtually never wrong with their appraisals, a skill they have fine-tuned throughout the ages as a necessity for survival in their homeland. He wasn't certain of anything else past that piece of information, that little nugget being all he managed to get out of Shanks - his former captain had been strangely tight-lipped regarding the descendants of the ancient tribe.

"That's what make things interesting."

"That's also how people die," Coby snapped. "I'm sorry, captain, but you have this knack for walking headfirst into danger without caution and one of these days, it's going to cause all of us our lives."

"But not today." Luffy favoured him with a lopsided grin. "I have a good feeling about today."

"What kind of good feeling?" Nami asked, instantly wary. It's not that she didn't trust her captain – as a matter of fact, she trusted him explicitly – at least with regards to protection. She knew without a shred of doubt that she was in good hands and no harm will befall her as long as he's around. It wasn't like her to place so much faith in someone she hardly knew, but Luffy just elicited such a reaction. It simply felt… right.

Still, his premonitions were a cause for concern, mainly due to his poor judgement that rears its head time and time again.

"I don't know how to describe it." The raven-haired captain whistled leisurely. "There's something in the air that tells me things are going to go our way today."

Coby wasn't convinced in the slightest, and he made it apparent by picking up several twigs lying around and sticking them into the moist soil every few feet as they traversed further into the jungle as markings. He also dug the end of the stick deep into the ground and drew a line connecting the vertical sticks as a plan B in the event of a mishap that dislodges one, breaking the chain. He smiled somewhat shyly when he noticed Nami peering at him. "In case we have to make a run for it," he explained, holding one of his last few apparatuses out. "Always good to be well-prepared."

She agreed whole-heartedly. Despite her captain's assurances, she still felt apprehensive and on edge with nervous energy and every so often, she turned back to check that nobody was following them. She couldn't shake off the impression that they were being watched and it was wreaking havoc on her senses already working overtime.

As they progressed deeper forward to their destination, the foliage got exponentially thicker, obscuring their field of vision and forcing Luffy in front to start bashing through the heavy leafage to make a path for them. To make matters worse, the girth of the protruding branches were phenomenal and unyielding, in line with the abnormally giant vegetation. The thorns and barbs cut into every inch of their exposed skin, draining their vitality slowly but surely.

If the choice of location in the middle of the forest was a calculated form of deterrence, it was definitely doing the trick.

"Are we there yet?" Luffy called out without looking back, fanning himself with a large leaf he had plucked out. "This is boring."

"We're not exactly having fun back here either, Luffy," Nami grumbled, unravelling the map in her hands. Without any prominent landmark to determine their exact bearings, she could only estimate where they were by the speed they were walking and how much time had passed. "Shouldn't be far off now. Actually, if I'm right, it should just be around the corner – "

"Stop right there, straw-hat."

Luffy halted and stared incredulously at the leaf in his hand. "YOU CAN TALK?! COOL! WHY DIDN'T YOU DO THAT EARLIER?"

Nami and Coby ignored their captain's cringe-worthy reaction to pin-point the source of the voice for themselves, which was a long-haired man on the upper branches of a tree with a pistol aimed directly at Luffy. "I'm up here, you idiot!" he screamed.

Snickers came from above in all directions, and Nami gasped when she realized that they were surrounded by similarly dressed men atop of different trees. They had a bird's eye view of the area and weapons all at the ready to fire and incapacitate, leaving them severely disadvantaged. Beside her, Coby tensed and untied his neckerchief from his collar, re-tying it around his right wrist. He gave it a few tugs to verify that it's secure, a severe look on his face as he returned his gaze to the unwanted guests.

Luffy finally oriented himself and spotted the man above him. "Oh, there you are! I didn't expect to find anybody else here!" he frowned. "Why are you up so high? It's hard to talk to you like this."

A grin slowly spread across the man's face – one full of malice and killing intention. "I guess it's a good thing that we're not here to talk then. Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Odren. I'm a bounty hunter that has single-handedly taken down multiple pirates with bounties as high as 5 million beli." He looked immensely proud of that feat. "You're next, Monkey D. Luffy. Prepare to feel the coldness of death!"

Their captain blinked up at the man, confusion in every line of his creased forehead. "For someone who doesn't want to talk, you sure do talk a lot."

The bounty hunter's eye twitched. "Why, you little brat – " He levelled his pistol, his finger curling around the trigger. "Let's see if you can still be snarky when you're DEAD!"

Nami screamed just as a deafening _bang_ filled the air. "GET OUT OF THE WAY, LUFFY!"

She watched in abject horror as Luffy stood motionless for a few seconds, shadows cloaking his expression. There was no visible entry wound or splatter of blood, and if she wasn't mistaken, Luffy didn't even waver the slightest, which was impossible if the bullet had hit – the impact would have sent him stumbling back at the very least. Could the bounty hunter have missed?

Then, as if in respond to her musings, the person in question cursed loudly. "What the hell? Did I fucking miss? Impossible!" He glared at Luffy's form, and fired off another few shots one after another quickly, shouting _die_ in tandem with each bullet. The rapid volley sent up a plume of dust around the raven-haired boy, and Nami covered her mouth with both hands to stop the squeal of dismay before it escaped. No human could have survived that.

A satisfied smirk on Odren's lips, he turned his attention to the two of them. Nami could feel her legs trembling, but she forced herself to remain strong. If she was going to go down, she wasn't about to make it easy for these bastards. Coby didn't look concerned about their captain's well-being at all. "Don't count him out just yet," he advised, pointing at where Luffy was standing a moment ago. "You'll need much more than that to even scratch him."

And as the dust settled, Luffy emerged in one piece (hurhur), yawning and rolling his shoulders forward nonchalantly. Nami's expression corresponded to that of Odren – blatant disbelief. The relief wasn't reflected on his face, however. That was all on her.

"That's all? I'm disappointed." He smiled, tilting his straw-hat at the dumbfounded bounty hunter. "Now, allow _me_ to introduce myself. And unlike you…" Luffy cracked his knuckles and hunched down slightly. "I talk with my fists."

He pushed off the ground, and all hell broke loose.

* * *

Nami toed aside one of the many unconscious bounty hunters with disgust after failing to find any money on him. Again. Did none of these people ever heard of a wallet? Heck, she'll even settle for some spare change at this point; anything to reward her efforts like stuffing her hand down their sticky pockets. They called themselves _bounty_ huntersyet they didn't have a single cent on them?

Outrageous.

"You could have left some for me." Coby's sulky voice. "I wanted to have some fun too!"

"I _might_ have went overboard," Luffy conceded, bending over to slap Odren on his cheeks. He stirred with a groan, peeling back his eyes slowly. They widened instantly when he realized who he was next to and the bounty hunter tried to slither away. Coby snatched up one of his legs and held it up, stopping him from getting away, but that didn't stop him from trying. Odren tired quickly though, the futility of his efforts dawning on him and he sagged to the ground.

"Kill me. Save me the humiliation."

Luffy laughed. "Why would I want to kill you? I only introduced myself to you. All I want is some directions."

Odren stared at him with distrust. "You're just going to let me go?"

"Yep."

"And the rest of my men?"

"Yep."

"You don't want anything from me?"

"All I want is directions. Oh, and why you attacked me for no reason."

Nami cut in before Odren could reply as she walked over to join them. "Excuse me. Actually, some gold would be nice. My captain did spare your miserable lives, so I think it's only right if you express your gratitude in money."

"Uhm, Nami, your eyes… they're dollar signs. Are you okay?" Coby asked.

"I'm fine."

"We don't need any more money, Nami," Luffy protested, "you have so much in that bag of yours – "

"MINE!" Nami growled, and the animalistic sound had Coby stepping backward in surprise and Odren cowering with a subdued yelp. Luffy scratched his head. "Don't even think about touching that. And let me just inform you, you can never have enough money," she reprimanded Luffy and sent a scathing look the bounty hunter's way.

He threw his hands up into the air in surrender. "You can have all of it! Every last cent!"

She showed her appreciation with a brief smile. "Thank you for being so understanding." Her expression darkened. "Get the money for me. _Now."_

"Right away, ma'am!" Odren leapt into action, moving like he was being chased by a bloodthirsty wolf pack. "Just wait here!"

"But he hadn't told us where to – "

"Luffy," Nami interrupted with a beatific smile so wide that even Luffy's rusty sense of self-preservation kicked into gear to save him from being steamrolled over by feminine fury. "Whatever it is, it can wait. Money can't. You understand why now, don't you?"

He gulped and nodded.

"Wonderful. Now get to work and help that bounty hunter out. The faster I – I mean _we –_ get the money, the better." She patted his cheeks lightly and motioned for him to go.

Luffy nodded mutely again, and trudged after Odren who was sprinting around from body to body like a headless chicken.

Coby was nowhere to be seen. That asshole.

* * *

The trio were back on their way soon enough, armed with knowledge of the base – Odren had been more than happy to pass it up, saying that he wanted nothing to do with the person that hired him – and a bag stuffed full of gold which Nami tasked Coby to lug along, quoting his little disappearing act when she "needed him most" when he tried to negotiate with her.

Of course, he failed.

"Be careful with all that money, Coby!" Nami warned, staring pointedly at the way he was dragging the grossly swollen sack along the ground, over tiny rocks and scraping audibly against the sand gathering in quantity as they approached the shore on the other end of the island. "That's all min – uhm, ours and I – uhm, _we_ won't want it spilling out all over the place!"

"I'm _trying,"_ Coby insisted, out of breath and winded. He hadn't felt this tired since Shanks' training session all that years back, and that was something he didn't want to relive without a doubt. But damn it all, this thing weighed a fucking _ton._ He wasn't going to sling it over his shoulder, that's for sure. Not without suffering major skeletal and muscular damage, anyway. "How much is in this sack anyway?"

"Nowhere near enough," Nami answered simply, truthfully.

"Are you sure?" The pink-haired boy grunted in exertion as the sack snagged on a low-lying branch and he had to heave it with all his strength to escape its thorny clutches. "Because it sure feels like there's enough in there to solve world hunger once and for all."

"I know, isn't that great? And it's all _mine."_ There was a long lapse in conversation before Nami amended her words, laughing nervously. "Ours, I mean. I would never dream of taking it all for myself."

"Right." Coby snorted. "Are you sure we can't just leave it here? We could bury it here beneath some weed and sand so we can come back and collect it later – "

Nami halted in her tracks so abruptly Coby screeched to a stop to avoid bumping into her rear. She then slowly turned around, and pinned him with a scowl that would have given Medusa herself a run for her money. He was surprised he could still move his limbs. "Coby," she began, her voice low and threatening, a gleam in her eyes that had him holding his hands out in front of him to protect himself, "I could also skin you alive, boil you and have a sumptuous meal for dinner. But I won't. Do you know why?"

"I don't think I want to know – "

Heedless of his reply, Nami continued. "Because there are some things that should never be considered. And leaving behind money is one of them." Her eyes narrowed. "Do. You. Understand?"

He sighed. "Fine."

"Good. Now let's go! Time's a wasting!" Back to her normal affable self, Nami skipped off to where her captain was spearheading their advance with the map in his hands, and even from where he was standing, Coby could see that it was upside down. Sighing again, and cursing all the Sea Devils for his luck with crewmates, he bent down and wrapped his hands around the mouth of the sack and resumed the herculean task of moving it to their destination.

* * *

The green-haired swordsman surveyed everything with a detached sense of amusement from his vantage point at the top of a tree. His attire helped him to blend into the surroundings somewhat – not that he was particularly concerned about being spotted. He knew he could hold his own, or at least he had _thought_ he could, until he caught a glimpse of how the straw-hat boy wiped the floor with the other bounty hunters using just good ol' strikes.

He hadn't even broken a damn sweat.

Now, Zoro always welcomed a challenge. In fact, he relished and savoured such chances to prove himself, to push himself to the utter limits both physically and mentally. It was the only way to continue improving himself, to refine his techniques and achieve his aim of becoming the best swordsman alive. Pitting himself against someone of that calibre will definitely be interesting to say the least, considering how he could tell the straw hat was holding back quite a bit – which was even more impressive how he took the entire gang down, they weren't exactly push-overs, though they were arrogant and overconfident of their mediocre abilities – and could have much more up his sleeves.

He couldn't bloody wait. It had been a long time since he felt such delight, such anticipation thrumming through his being. There had been nobody around him close to matching him, and he was stagnating with nobody to pit himself against, which was unacceptable. That was what drove him to be recruited as a freelance pirate hunter: the opportunity to encounter opponents that are out of his league, so he will have to surpass the self-imposed boundaries and get better at his craft.

Thumbing the hilt of one of his three swords, he regarded the pink-haired boy grunting from time to time below him thoughtfully, then to the duo a fair distance away.

He unsheathed his sword with a flourish. Wouldn't hurt to warm up a little first.

 **TBC**

* * *

 **A/N: I'm back, people! I know it's been awhile (almost 2 weeks I'm guessing, since someone just PM-ed me and requested I update ASAP :P) but I was sick the past few days and recuperating in bed, so I wasn't able to get too much shit done... Unfortunately. It's good to be uploading another chapter again, though it's kind of a filler one (gotta keep true to the anime, huh?) but on a brighter note, the next chapter is going to be... *drumroll please* ZORO VERSUS COBY. Heh, to those who thought it'll be Luffy versus the swordsman, who else will be the one going against the main villian?**

 **So this is the first big arc, and I'm going to reveal some of Coby's abilities and what he learnt under Shanks as well as the extent of Luffy's powers. Despite it being seemingly infinite as it's dubbed the "Energy fruit", how strong a devil fruit is entirely dependent on the user's capacity to utilize it. So Luffy definitely isn't at the level to use the fruit to the fullest, and hence has limitations.** **Of course, the main antagonist of the first part of this story will also be touched upon and explained - the devil fruit hunters. There's a brief mention of them in the previous chapters, but before the end of this arc, you guys will understand what they're doing.**

 **SO, anyway, thank you so much for the support guys. The reviews are all really encouraging, and I hope I'll continue posting great chapters to keep y'all interested!**

 **Look forward to the next chapter, when shit really hits the fan.**

 **REVIEWS!**

oghren: Hullo. Luffy will DEFINITELY learn about love. I mean, despite everything about Nami, she just doesn't strike me as someone who will sleep around for no reason other than pleasure. At least, that's how I view her. She'll make Luffy figure it out before getting naughty with him, so... yeah, definitely will have that tricky emotion involved! :D

Davidteague3950: hmm, that's a good question. I haven't thought about that, but I am inclined towards a weapon change. Dual wielding pistols actually sound pretty awesome, with a back-up sling _if_ he runs out of ammo, which will be a constant problem that he rectifies sometime in the future with a cool new source of ammo. HMM. Sounds pretty good to me. Thanks for the great suggestion as always ;)

devlindracul: That's funny, because I'm the furthest from a fan of politics you'll ever find :P nah, I won't say I despise politics (I kind of do have to keep track of it since I'm doing a little investing and these shit do affect it sometimes) but it's a bit of a pain in the ass to keep up and stay abreast of just because of how complicated and tangled it is. So much veiled meanings and indirect jabs that my head wants to explode sometimes. I don't think I'll ever write something like that again, so... yeah, hopefully that's the last of it. Actually, you made _two_ mistakes, one of which has just been confirmed in this chapter. The other one... you'll find out soon! Ah, yes, Tashigi and Zoro. I do adore the two of them together, what with similar interests, her resembling his childhood friend and whatnot, so I **will** make it happen. Yep. SPOILER ALERT.

sarenemun: Thanks 3 hurhur sorry but no battle, it's the next chapter. (I'm not looking forward to writing it, as there'll be so much happening in the next few chapters it'll be a pain in the ass)

Void803: That's actually a brilliant suggestion, I might do exactly that. Besides, she's hot as fuck. I can always appreciate a girl that eats like she's been starved her entire life. Heh. I'm actually still unclear about her exact abilities, but I'll go search that up. It'll be a loooooooooong time before she shows up though, so don't hold your breath! XD

Annony: I've probably mentioned this in a chapter before, but I am more inclined towards a Luffy/Robin pairing just because I think they balance each other out. Rational, calm and mature Robin with a rash, zealous and absent-minded Luffy. A pair made in One Piece heaven. Well, I do hope the CD in this story can live up to your expectations, but I personally place a heavy emphasis on character development simply because without it, the story becomes empty and lackluster. I expect this story to go up to 500k words minimum, so I'm certain I'll have plenty of time to give each character sufficient limelight to bathe and be nurtured in. Hopefully, anyway, 'cos I'm absurdly lazy at times :P well, I guess you'll be able to come to a verdict soon - the show is about to get started. Thanks for the review btw!

Gmann: Firstly, thanks for the great compliment. Trust me, you won't want my brain. It's overused, filled with irrelevant and useless theories and thoughts and filthy. Yep. Hmm, and about the extent of his abilities, I explained a tad bit above that he is currently severely limited due to his body being unable to handle anything past a certain point (his threshold is still pretty low) and the _type_ of energy is completely up to his imagination. As you could imagine, he's clueless about science unless it's the most basic or he had experienced it before, so he has no idea what he's capable of. Maybe Robin could help him with that!

Darth Prime: Hello, awesome name by the way. Okay, so that defecation analogy? Came up with it off the top of my brain. I realize it's actually pretty apt. Huh, go figure. Yes, now that you pointed that out, you're absolutely right. I'm going to go back and fix it. Probably bullshit my way out of it, like saying how she got lucky and the shoulder with the tattoo was conveniently facing away from Luffy. Three years in marketing really gifted me with the garb of tongue. Thanks for being so observant and giving me the heads up!

 **Well, that's basically it. Thanks for all the reviews, feedbacks, constructive criticism and compliments! Love y'all.**

 **Ciao!**


	8. Chapter 8

_**Chapter 8: Santoryu**_

* * *

Coby was aware of the presence behind his back long before the man spoke up; he had let him get that close because after a cursory sizing-up with his Haki, he found him lacking. On the mental plane, of course, since physically, the man was in tip-top shape. He had to be, to land so lithely and soundlessly on the balls of his feet after leaping off from such a height. Only the clinking of his swords in their sheaths would have given his position away, and even that was muted.

Not somebody to trifle with, but not somebody that will pose too much of a threat either.

If he could hold his own against some of the pirates in Shanks' crew, he could take on almost anybody.

Yes, Coby had been aware of him all the while. His field of "vision" had been commended by even Shanks to be impressive - most beginners took an inordinate amount of time to master the simplest form of Haki, while it was like he had a natural flair for it. It came to him naturally, opening up his inner eye to scan his surroundings periodically. Maybe it was his irrational fear of Alvida making good on her dark promises to return and punish his insubordination as she was handed over to the Marines that had him constantly looking back over his shoulder, half-expecting his old abusive captain to be hovering over him with that spiked mace and teeth bared in a humourless smile. Maybe it was exactly that tendency that allowed him to access his willpower so easily; he always wanted to know who or what was around him. It was like he instinctively knew what to do from the very beginning, and under Shanks' patient albeit relentless tutorage, he picked up the basics in a matter of days what others required years to.

"It's not stalking when the prey knows you're there." Coby pivoted, and got his first look at the swordsman. "And just to make it clear, I'm not exactly the type to be labelled a prey either." He had been once, never again.

If the swordsman with a mob of moss green hair was surprised, he didn't outwardly show it. He did, however, stop moving forward and remained a short distance away. His expression remained impassive, calm. Focused. "What gave me away?"

His stalker looked every bit as he had imagined – tall and muscularly lean and in excellent shape. He was clad in a plain white top with a black bandanna tied around one bicep and a green _haramaki_ around his waist. The scabbards of his three – _three?_ – swords were secured around his right hip with the cloth and his right hand rested over the hilts, ready to draw and do battle at a moment's notice.

Coby smiled. His stealth would have been damn near perfect, if not for his Haki, but he held that piece of valuable information close to his chest. He wasn't about to go running around and announce his competency as of yet. "I have extremely good hearing," he lied.

The swordsman shook his head, his right hand palming the hilts of his swords to the left of his hip. "Impossible. Not even a Berudian would have been able to detect me, and their heightened senses are unmatched by any other human."

Coby shrugged. "Then maybe I'm not human."

"I don't think so." A cocked eyebrow. "You're every bit as human as me."

"Well, if you're just going to throw back every possible explanation I'm giving you, then I can't help you. Figure it out on your own."

A quicksilver grin, a flash of violence in those dark eyes. "Will you tell me if I best you, one-on-one?"

"So that's what you're here for? To pick a fight?"

He folded his arms. "Of course. What other reason could there be? And after I bring you down, your captain's next."

"Hah. You're with those bounty hunters from before, aren't you?"

"Don't even put me in the same sentence as those vermin." Disgust-laced words spoken with censure. "They are nothing in comparison."

"Well, I'm sorry to break your bubble," Coby answered, eyeing the green-haired man carefully just in case he dropped the friendly chatter and decided to attack. He knew from experience how some people loved to play dirty – they would take whatever advantage they could get. The swordsman didn't strike him as dishonourable, but he wasn't going to leave anything to chance. That's how people lose to inferior opponents – they underestimated them. "But you're not going to be getting past me to my captain, so you can forget about it."

"COBY!" Luffy's worried voice interrupted the deceptively casual conversation, and the pink-haired teenager glanced back at his captain who was busting a lung to get to him. "WHO'S THAT MOSS-HEAD? ARE YOU ALRIGHT?!"

The green-haired man being called out bristled at the nickname. "DON'T CALL ME THAT! MY NAME IS ZORO, THE INFAMOUS PIRATE HUNTER AND THE ONE WHO'S GOING TO BRING YOU DOWN!"

Both of them ignored the fuming swordsman. "I'm fine, Luffy," Coby said, rotating on the spot once to get his point across. "You guys should go on ahead. I've got this."

Luffy slowed down when he reached his crewmate, though his eyebrows remained furrowed. "You got what? What does he want with you?" Nami arrived seconds later and hunched over immediately, hands on her knees, panting as if she had just ran a marathon.

"I really," she gasped out in between breaths, "need to work. On my. Cardio."

"He wants to fight with me," Coby said simply, as if that was explanation enough.

It apparently was, or at least to Luffy. "Oh." The straw-hat captain peered over his comrade's shoulder at the agitated swordsman cursing and swinging his sword in a circular motion in the air. "Are you going to? He looks mad."

"Yeah. You had all the fun previously; it's my turn now."

"DON'T PRETEND YOU CAN'T HEAR WHAT I'M SAYING, YOU BASTARDS!" The man who announced himself as Zoro shouted. "AT LEAST SHOW ME SOME RESPECT HERE!"

Of course, that fell on deaf ears as well. "Alright." Luffy acquiesced easily, smiled at Coby and turned back to the direction they were originally heading in. "Nami and I will make a move first and find that baddie. You can catch up with us later. Don't take too long."

Coby nodded. "Of course. I'll be back even before you notice I'm gone."

"Great. Nami, let's go."

Nami looked daunted by the task of moving again. She crumbled into an unceremonious heap onto the floor. "Five more minutes, Luffy," she pleaded, her big doe eyes imploring, "I can't feel my bodyYEEEHHHHHH! LUFFY, LET GO OF ME OR I'LL KICK YOU SO HARD INTO NEXT YEAR – "

Coby chuckled wryly to himself as he watched his captain yank the redhead gracelessly along the ground, much like the way he had treated the sack of gold. Just as he registered that thought, he hazarded a quick glance towards the worn-out bag and breathed out a sigh of relief when he saw that it was exactly where he had left it: a swollen mound on a pile of sand, the grit and dirt having gotten into the burlap while being lugged and making it blend in with its coarse-grained surroundings.

Nami stopped struggling and kicking and darkly promising various violent deaths for their captain long enough to stare at him. "And as for you," she called out to him, ominous intent in those pretty brown irises, "protect the gold with your _life._ Under no circumstan – _ouch!_ WILL YOU BE MORE CAREFUL WITH ME, LUFFY?"

Their captain said something inaudible to the redhead, and her expression morphed into one of self-righteous affront. "You're dead," she hissed with venom, "YOU'RE SO DEAD. YOU DO NOT TELL A WOMAN SHE'S FAT, YOU BRAIN DEAD MORON! I'LL DEAL WITH YOU LATER. COBY!" She jabbed a finger at the first mate – an amusing sight, what with her on her behind and being pulled by the collar by Luffy. Her finger kept bobbling up and down due to the bumpy ride. "DO NOT LOSE THAT GOLD. IF I SO MUCH AS FIND ONE BELI MISSING, I WILL CASTRATE YOU."

It almost physically hurt to supress the laughter bubbling up, but he managed. "Roger, ma'am!"

She returned her attention to their captain. "GODDAMNIT, LUFFY, LET ME GO!"

Shaking his head affectionately, Coby tore his gaze away from the amusing spectacle and back to his the swordsman. "Now, where were we?" he asked.

The swordsman was leaning against the trunk of a tree casually, back to his aloof self and straightened when Coby returned his attention to him. "Finally done? You have some messed up crewmates there."

"And I wouldn't have it any other way."

Zoro frowned at his statement, no doubt sensing the underlying tones of loyalty and fondness. "Why? They're nothing more than just troublemakers. If I was you, I'll be happy to be rid of them."

"Ah, but that's where you're wrong." Coby shrugged. "I don't know how to explain it, but I've come to see them as family. They may be a handful – one in particular – but so be it. That's what makes them who they are, and I would never change anything about them. We might not have been through a lot together yet, but I know for certain that they'll have my back and I'll have theirs."

Coby thought he saw a faraway look in the swordsman's eyes, whispering of a deep wistfulness and longing, but it was gone so fast he must have imagined it. "I've had enough of this pointless chatter," Zoro snapped, and there was anger in those words. Something had gotten him worked up, though Coby couldn't begin to fathom what it was. "You were about to accept my challenge, if I do recall."

"Damn right I was." Coby grinned. Adrenaline coursed through his veins and he beckoned for his opponent to come at him. "What are we waiting for, then? I ain't got all day."

"I like your eagerness." Unsheathing two swords and leaving one in its scabbard, the green-haired man brandished the weapons with smooth, experienced strokes, the cutting edges of the blades gleaming thirstily in the sunlight. "I'll be merciful when I defeat you and grant you a swift, painless death."

Coby felt the side of his lips tug into a ghost of a smile. "It won't come to that, don't worry. I won't be the one losing."

"Enough talking! Draw your weapon and face me!"

"I don't have one."

Narrowed dark eyes. "Are you mocking me? You won't last a minute if that's the case. I'll cut you down before you can even react."

Coby allowed the smile to fully form, and was rewarded with the clenching of the swordsman's jaw. "You'll be surprised," he said simply, honestly.

"You have chosen your destiny. This will be over in an instant."

And with those words, the swordsman pushed off the ground, moving so quickly he was almost a blur. He would have caught Coby off guard if not for his Haki which prompted him to dodge, and even then, rusty from disuse, he was slow to manoeuvre his body away from the tip of one of the blades and it drew blood across his arm. Wincing inwardly, the first mate rubbed at his new wound. Maybe he had underestimated –

Zoro didn't allow him even the briefest of respites. He was back on him before Coby could catch a breath but it didn't matter. Once again, his Haki took over, and this time, there was no hesitation on his part. He let it take over completely, guiding his body in rhythm with every swing of Zoro's sword that was meant to sever him in half. He saw each move that the swordsman wanted to make before he physically executed it and dodged all of it with small, precise twists of his body. He had to give Zoro credit though – that man was fast _and_ tenacious _._ With his dual wield and speed that exceeded human limitations, he slashed and hacked at him relentlessly without any signs of tiring, gallant despite none of his attacks landing.

Finally, Coby took advantage of the swordsman's flagging strength and struck out with an uppercut after a side-step that left him with enough space to counter. It connected perfectly, and a surprised gurgle left Zoro's mouth as he was knocked off his feet. Coby launched himself at his adversary and followed up with a downwards elbow straight to his midriff, hitting him square in the solar plexus. The impact sent the swordsman hurtling to the ground where he groaned and writhed in pain, but he pushed himself onto his knees and struggled back to his feet immediately.

"Not bad. I might have underestimated you a little. You're faster than I gave you credit for," Coby said, eyeing Zoro as he spit out a glob of blood. "But speed isn't enough to defeat me. Not when I'm able to read your movements and intention."

Instead of replying, Zoro laughed loudly. Fucking _laughed_ , as if he hadn't just gotten his ass handed to him on a silver platter. He laughed as if being knocked to the ground was the funniest thing in the world. He clutched at his stomach with one hand as his uncontrollable laughter went on and had to stab a blade into the ground to use as a support for the other.

His entire frame quaked with mirth.

"What the hell is so funny?" Coby growled, irritated by his lack of tact. They were in the middle of a fight, for the love of the Sea Devil. He wondered dimly if he had simultaneously knocked something loose in Zoro's head.

Zoro visibly struggled to rein in his amusement, and it was a few more seconds before his laughter subsided entirely – a few seconds where Coby got progressively angrier and was ready to pummel his opponent to the ground. Only his pride and honour held him back; he wasn't going to attack someone defenceless. Sometimes, he really hated his virtuous side.

Zoro met his eyes then, and his was blazing with hunger. "I'm just thinking that I haven't felt this alive in so long. I've finally found someone who I can't cut into shreds, and that thrills me so much!" He grinned, his teeth stained crimson from his blood. He must have bit himself at some point. "I CAN ACTUALLY GO ALL OUT NOW WITHOUT WORRYING THAT THERE WILL BE NOTHING LEFT OF YOU TO BURY! THIS IS GLORIOUS!"

Coby could relate somewhat to his rationalisation - finding someone worthy to spar with could prove to be an arduous task at times. He didn't have that problem on board of Shank's crew; almost everybody there were masters of their own craft and was able to take him out without lifting a single muscle. Still, he figured that the prospect of being able to go all out would be pleasing, but the swordsman across from him seemed to be taking it a little bit too far. "Are you sure you're alright?" he asked. "You might have a screw loose."

"I'm better than fine," Zoro insisted, his grin never once faltering. He slowly got to his feet before retrieving the sunken blade and brandishing both of them. "Prepare yourself, worthy adversary. You're about to witness a style of swordplay that few has seen, and none has survived to tell the tale."

Coby quirked an eyebrow, but didn't comment in favour of observing. The swordsman reached for the hilt of the unused blade, unsheathing and throwing it into the air in one smooth movement. The blade reflected the sunlight at different angles as it spun, suspended in the air, casting brilliant rays in all directions like a kaleidoscope. When it plummeted towards the ground, Coby was rendered speechless when Zoro leapt upwards and caught it tightly between his teeth. He landed nimbly and held out all three of his blades at the ready. "Santoryu, the three swords style. Nobody has managed to best me yet when I get serious." The edge of his lips pulled sideways into a small smile. "And you're not going to be breaking my streak."

Coby wasn't overly worried. His Haki, woefully inadequate in comparison to that of anybody on Shanks' crew, should nevertheless still be sufficient to bail him out of any situation in the East Blue. Still, he wasn't going to lie and say that he felt extremely confident because, well, he wasn't. After all, he's looking at something he had never seen before even after those years he spent traversing the seas with Shanks.

He supposed he could pick up the facets of the unique sword style as he went along - his Haki would just have to tide him over until he had it all figured out and could counter without any risk of harm. And worst comes to worst, he still had _that_ to fall back on, though he'll prefer if he didn't have to utilise it – the repercussions were a real pain to deal with.

"We'll see about that," he said, fingering the edges of his neckerchief tied around his wrist absently. It was a habit he couldn't shed. "Maybe you'll actually be able to graze me this time."

Zoro's eyes narrowed briefly, and then he was charging towards him with a roar. The killing intent radiating off of his aura was so strong Coby had no issues with evading any of the attacks. The addition of a sword opened up a whole new spectrum of combinations for Zoro, and it was evident in the way Coby found himself forced into full defensive mode with every barrage the swordsman threw at him, and his usage of Haki was well into overdrive to merely keep up. They were at an impasse; with all his Haki concentrated on predicting and avoiding his constant onslaught, he wasn't getting hit, but he was unable to find any openings to land a blow of his own.

Surprisingly, unlike before, he showed no signs of fatigue or slowing down, and that was what first alarmed him. He was quickly reaching the upper crests of his reserves - Haki sapped an exorbitant amount of energy - and the animalistic gleam in Zoro's eyes sparked an explosion of panic in his chest. He kept on going like clockwerk and Coby soon found himself forgoing perfect defence for a chance at striking back, to create some space for himself to regroup and strategize his next move.

When Zoro came forth once again with a flurry of slashes, he narrowly sidestepped the vertical hacks from his dual wielded blades and ducked under the horizontal swipe of the sword clutched in between his teeth. Sensing a small window of opportunity, he lashed out with a kick meant to push the swordsman back and had the satisfaction of his boot making solid contact with Zoro's abdomen. However, Zoro merely grunted from the impact, and undaunted, was back in his face again, catching the first mate off guard.

Coby swore as he dove out of the way from desperation, the blades slicing through the air where he once was milliseconds ago. He broke the momentum of his fall by breaking into a roll, but his muscles were quivering from exhaustion and he was left sprawled out on his front on the grainy ground at the end of the tumble, turning the air blue with curses. He was in real trouble now, but even if he wanted to call upon the help of _it_ , he had to get some space to concentrate –

"This is the end," he heard the swordsman declare, and Coby flipped onto his rear in time to see Zoro sailing through the air, the piercing end of the two blades ready to skewer him through the chest.

Calling on a last burst of energy, his weary muscles protesting sharply, Coby rolled on his side to evade what would have been the finishing blow. He was just in the nick of time; he felt the _swoosh_ as the swords embedded themselves in the sand inches beside his face.

He scampered to his feet and back-pedalled, putting some distance between them. Zoro was breathing as heavily as he was, the creases on his forehead in sharp relief as they stared at each other with grudging respect.

But Coby knew for sure that neither of them was going to back down until a winner was determined.

"You're not half bad, Zoro the Pirate Hunter."

"I could say the same about you, pinky."

Coby tried to look as annoyed as possible in his current state, but even that took a herculean amount of effort and he gave up. "The name's Coby, mossy."

"Don't call me that!"

"Then don't call me pinky!"

Zoro plucked the blades out of the sand and inspected it to ensure it's clean before resuming his fighting stance, to which Coby inwardly groaned. He thought that they could engage in a little bit of small talk, giving him some time to recover his strength and stamina, but the swordsman clearly wasn't about to offer him such a luxury. "Let's go again, Coby. I still have your captain to take care of after I wipe the floor with you."

Coby sighed. Looks like he had no other choice but to use it. He didn't like being forced to play his trump card, but he had grossly misjudged how long the fight would go on for and had spent far too much energy on his Haki in one go.

"Hold on. If you're going all out, I think it's only fair if I do the same as well." Coby tapped the neckerchief tied to his wrist, once a treasured possession of Shanks, now entrusted to him as his former captain no longer had a use for it, his mastery of Haki having long surpassed what the fabric could assist with. Closing his eyes, he focused and activated the neckerchief's innate Devil Fruit powers using his Haki. It responded immediately, greedily lapping at his willpower like a starved animal, eager to once again be of use after the stretch of disservice.

The neckerchief was "fed" a Devil Fruit by mistake during Shanks' youth; he had accidentally sliced open said fruit and a few drops of the juice landed on the fabric. It was absorbed, and the neckerchief, to his disbelief, gained a sheen of silvery white right in front of his wide eyes and turned from its initial color of a pristine white to a deep blue, the exact shade of its Devil Fruit - a rounded, bumpy and scaly blue fruit that resembled an exotic variety called a dragonfruit.

It had taken the red-haired pirate a few frustrating months of trial and error to divine for sure what the enchanted object was capable of, and when he did, it dawned on him exactly how the neckerchief could be utilised to its fullest potential.

As a training tool for his apprentices that were learning the art of Haki.

Zoro was looking at him expectantly, as if Coby was going to produce a weapon of mass destruction from his pockets. When that didn't happen, he squinted at him in suspicion. "Do something already, then. Nothing's happening!"

Coby chuckled. Oh, if he only knew. Already, he could feel the neckerchief working its magic, regulating the flow of Haki in his body, empowering him and giving him confidence to withstand anything that was thrown his way. "Not physically, anyway. It's done. Try to keep up with me now."

This time, Coby was the one to initiate.

* * *

"Are you sure he's going to be alright?" Nami fretted from his side, "that guy looked strong. He might actually be able to injure Coby, or even worse – "

"Calm down, Nami," Luffy instructed the redhead, slanting her a glance. He was worried too, but he trusted his companion absolutely. And absolute trust in Coby and his abilities meant that he couldn't go down that road of thought. Wouldn't permit himself to. "He'll be fine, you'll see."

"You don't know for sure! I say we turn back right now and check on him. If he's doing well, then we can let him be, but if he's not..." she trailed off, her expression grim.

The straw hat captain sighed. "Nami, he wanted this. He wouldn't want for us to interrupt, even if he really is losing. It's a matter of pride."

"Pride's not going to matter when he's dead, Luffy!"

"He's not going to die," Luffy said with conviction, and he found that he really did believe it. He had known Coby for awhile now, and even though he wasn't privy of what he might be capable of now after sailing with Shanks, he believed in him wholly. He wasn't going to let a nobody defeat him.

Nami met his eyes, her teeth gnawing on her lower lip. That action sent a jolt of lust straight to his groin, and he cursed the inappropriateness of it all. He definitely had to address this worrying issue soon; _after this_ _entire thing comes to an end_ , he assured himself. Right now, he had to remain all business. He couldn't afford any diversion.

"How could you be so certain?" she asked.

"Because I trust him." Luffy replied, as if that was the most natural thing in the world. "And I know that he will never let me down." He smiled at her and shrugged. "If I can't even trust my crewmates, who else can I trust?"

Nami didn't answer for a long time, and her expression was one of deep contemplation as they continued trekking on side by side. Luffy could see that his reply had stunned her, but the profoundly pensive look on her face hinted at a giant internal conflict that was anything but simple. He wondered if it was his words that were responsible for her mental debate, but felt no need to elaborate on his reasoning; the trust he had in Coby wasn't something he could explain with ease. Some people would call it blind faith, and it probably was, but that's just the way he is. _She'll come to understand_ , he thought, _she's smart_.

Thankfully, when Nami spoke up again, it was about something else. "Luffy?" she bumped him with her shoulder, her voice uncharacteristically shaky. It reminded him of the first day he met her – it felt like ages ago, even though it was just a few days back – when she had seemed so vulnerable and small. After he had seen the vibrant side of her that was so full of life and passion, Luffy never wanted to see her that way again.

"Yeah?"

"Do you… trust me too?"

He didn't even have to think about it. "Of course. Without reservation."

There was a long pause before she replied. "Oh." She lowered her head, the single uttered word a bare whisper. The flatness of her answer left him with an inexplicable pang just above his sternum and he rubbed at it in bewilderment. He was _really_ out of his element here. He didn't know what he was _supposed_ to do, but some part of him was crying out to comfort the redhead even though he didn't have a friggin' clue what had caused her sudden change in behaviour. Nami just seemed so mellow and withdrawn that it pained him to even look at her. Was it something he had said? He thought back but came up empty. Nothing remotely offensive had been said, he was sure.

All he knew was that he had to tread carefully, if not for his sake, then for Nami's as well.

"Why? What's wrong?" he asked, trying to get a read on her emotions but failing. Her face was carefully blank, like a perfect mask.

"It's nothing." She gave him a half-smile that wasn't at all convincing before speeding up and taking the lead. "We should be reaching soon. Let's hurry up, yeah?"

Luffy sighed and scratched the back of his head. Should he push for an answer? This was all so complicated; he never asked for this. It wasn't hard to see that Nami meant him well by hiding her past from him, sealing away all her secrets. However, it was obviously troubling her – a lot, if her mood swings were any indication – and Luffy was so damn sure he could help, if she'll just stop being stubborn and reveal them to him.

But Nami was a part of his crew – even if she might not be a permanent fixture _yet_ – and he will never give up on any of them. He decided that he'll slowly wear her iron-clad defences down, talk to her and persuade her to let him into her world. Everybody had demons plaguing them, and sometimes all we need is a little help to make the difference, to cease the haunting once and for all.

He'll just have to make her see things from his point of view.

"Yeah," he said to his navigator. "Let's finish this as soon as possible."

* * *

 **A/N:** **So Coby finally got the fight he wanted, but has he bitten off more than he could chew? Zoro is no push-over, as well all know... And what's up with that neckerchief? What kind of Devil Fruit ability does it have to be able to control the flow of Haki in his body? Hmmm... Oh, and Luffy is confused. Again. Go figure, huh?**

 **So a very good morning, afternoon or night to all of you! There were numerous responses to my previous chapter, mostly about the giant chunk of information about the Devil Fruit appraisers, and if you people will go back and read through that portion, you'll find out it's gone and replaced with a much shorter, compressed version. Thank you for the feedback and please do keep in mind that I'm honestly not a good author and I'm still learning as I go. So constructive criticism is always appreciated! (For those that commented regarding the few paragraphs of exposition, I have personally sent a PM to each of you so I'm not going to be posting my response here.)**

 **Now, for the reviews...**

 **GMann** : Hmm, about sea stone. I think it's _not_ a material that's as strong as diamond, but it just hinders the Devil Fruit users from coming close to it just because it saps their strength very quickly. Perhaps a long distance destructive Devil Fruit ability might be able to break it, but much of it still remains shrouded in mystery to us, doesn't it? From my point of view, I think since it's a part of the sea and Devil Fruits are susceptible to the powers of the sea, it should have a certain resistance to all sorts of Devil Fruit powers. But of course, the Energy fruit might be different, considering it's _special._ We'll just have to see about that, won't we? :P

It's a much more even fight than you expected, I presume. Even though Coby did train under a Yonko, he didn't have a lot of time, and it takes years for someone to truly master Haki. So I think this is how it will go down if a fight really did happen, and Coby will need a sort of power boost to really take down Zoro, which is going to be revealed in the next chapter. ;)

 **Darth Prime** : It's very good to have someone like you reviewing simply because the way you rationalize really helps to put things in perspective for me. I tend to miss out certain things which you point out and alert me of, so for that, I'm highly thankful. Hmm, about the Luffy harem, I'm thinking of keeping the entire thing under wraps first, so I don't want to make too many promises I might end up unable to keep, but as of right now, I'm planning for there to be FIVE girls. So there'll be three additional ones, besides for Luffy and Robin. Anymore and it might end up being too complicated to tie up at the end...

Yes, regarding that exposition, I envisioned a cut scene in anime where a narrator sort of takes over and brings us to another small plot for awhile. I guess it doesn't work as well here in a story, so that's a bummer, but I'll find another way to work it into the plot. Thank you for your help!

 **xXCoopyXx:** Hello, new reader! Well, I won't go as far to say as this story is _better_ than the other two, purely because different people like different genres and they cater to a different target audience. Personally, I have always preferred contemporary stuff because it's easier for me to write and more relatable. This is a new experience for me, and exciting in its own way. Priority-wise, it will be this story due to the sheer size of it and my goal to finish it before the end of my army (which is in roughly more than a year's time) Actually, I update every one to two weeks, four to six weeks is kind of an exaggeration - I understand that people get impatient when a story isn't updated for a long time. So I make it a point to actually push out chapters as fast as possible. I'm uploading them as fast as I can write them. (I procrastinate quite alot, so... :P) Yep, I'm not going to be throwing canon One Piece out the window entirely. I'm still going to be following the timeline, the islands they visit and stick closely to it because the plot is still pretty much the same - Luffy still wants to be the Pirate King after all. The characters they meet, the crew members they recruit will be different though, so naturally there will be changes here and there, but it won't be something too drastic, no worries there! Thank you for reviewing! :)

 **sketchtheunicorn:** Thank you for taking time to read my story! I think you're actually right, I'll have to find a way to make the first chapter less boring and more engaging. It's necessary though, like you said, so I'm reluctant to change it up too much, but perhaps I could incorporate some dialogue inside to make it not so mundane. Anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter!

 **Well that's it for now! Until next time!**


	9. Chapter 9

**_Chapter 9: 108-pound cannon_**

* * *

Dusk crept upon the island at a steady pace, blanketing the land and turning the sky different shades of gray with brilliant streaks of orange highlights from the setting sun.

Nami would normally have given pause and ate the scenery up, but she barely noticed the onset of night, so preoccupied she was by her tumultuous thoughts. It wasn't like her to grow attached to someone easily; she had always been repulsed by the mere notion of relying on someone else. She prided herself for being independent and self-sufficient, but there was something about Luffy that got under her skin and made her feel... Skittish.

Was it how trusting he was? Or was it his undying loyalty and absolute confidence in his nakama? His rage-inducing antics? His untarnished outlook on the world and its inhabitants?

Whatever it was, she didn't like it. She felt as if she could let down her guard around him because he'll be there to make everything right, and that will only induce a sense of complacency which she didn't want or need. After all, it was only a matter of time before they both went their separate ways and she was back to her lonesome.

That thought elicited a pang in her chest which she promptly ignored.

"Nami? We're here."

Luffy's voice roused her from her reverie and Nami blinked a few times to orientate herself. Darkness had fallen almost completely in her few minutes of musing, the thin threads of dying sunlight the only illumination in the otherwise pitch black forest. The vegetation had got sparser a few metres back until it opened up into a gigantic clearing right at the literal edge of the island. Beyond the steep drop was a one-way trip to oblivion, with sharp jagged cliff edges lining the sides and gigantic waves crashing onto the thin strip of shore far below.

Nami shuddered. She had always despised heights. Moving away quickly, she fixed her eyes on the large, decrepit building that might have been a bustling factory in the past. Now, the jungle had taken in the structure like one of its own, with monstrous vines and plants of the likes she had never seen before sprouting and crawling up the peeling concrete walls, using it as their support.

The pair made their way over cautiously, Luffy in the lead and Nami a few steps behind. It irritated her slightly that he always instinctively put his body in front of hers without a word, no doubt to act as a shield in the possibility of an unforeseen circumstance. She didn't need to be babied. She had been able to take care of herself just fine for the past decade or two, thank you very much. However, she found it hard to voice out those thoughts to her bubbly captain, primarily because a part of her that was inherently female was stupidly pleased by the show of protectiveness and the thoughtfulness of the gesture.

She didn't like it. It was a foreign feeling; not entirely unpleasant, but it rubbed her the wrong way, making her wary of the emotions that might follow.

Luffy stilled suddenly and Nami almost bumped into him. "Wait." The single word left no questions about the seriousness of the situation and Nami reprimanded herself mentally for drifting off... Again. This wasn't a time to think about how infuriatingly caring and selfless her captain was!

Temporary captain, she purposely corrected herself for the second time in that quarter of an hour.

The entrance to the monstrous building was, curiously enough, made of reinforced steel. Nami wondered what the factory was used for in the past that warranted such measures to be set in place. Luffy had a pensive look on his face as he regarded their destination. Nami got a distinct feeling that he wasn't looking at the door, but beyond it and into the building.

"The person we're looking for is here," Luffy confirmed, his voice low and taking on a husky baritone that had Nami shivering in response, rubbing her arms with her hands. She told herself that it was the chill in the air and nothing more. ""I can't tell where he is exactly. His presence seems... Insubstantial. Ethereal. I can't get a good reading on him."

"How is that possible?"

"I don't know." Luffy shook his head. "There are thousands of Devil Fruits, each with their own unique ability. All we know for sure is that he or she has consumed one. We'll just have to improvise from here onwards."

She must have had a grim look on her face, because Luffy smiled and nudged her with the side of his shoulder. "It'll be fine. Trust me. I won't let anything happen to you."

"It's not that." Nami scowled. "I can take care of myself, you know. I don't need you to watch over me like I'm a newborn child!"

Luffy rubbed the back of his neck with a sheepish grimace. "I know, I know, but I can't help it. I don't want anything to happen to you."

The last comment was disarming, because it meant that he cared about her. He probably treated all his friends that way, she chided herself. She wasn't special.

She pursed her lips and stifled the sound of annoyance coming up her vocal chords. Why was she even thinking along this line? Did she want to be special? Dear Sea Devil, she hated all this uncertainty and second guessing herself. What happened to the independent Nami that took no shit from anyone not that long ago?

Luffy must have taken her silence as anger and refusal to speak to him for he pouted and whined, "Are you mad at me? I'm sorry, Nami. I can't promise you that I won't worry about you because I'll never be able to do that, but I can – "

"Stop." Nami silenced her captain by placing a finger on his lips. Big mistake. His lips were soft, moist and yielding and she recoiled as if struck. It took her a moment to regain her composure and when she did, she swallowed past the tight lump in her throat before continuing. "Luffy, there's something I, uh, have to talk to you about. It's important. I need to clarify certain something because it's really, really bugging me."

Luffy cocked his head to the side in puzzlement. "What is it?"

"I... It's about you, Luffy, and my future. But the timing isn't right." Nami lowered her gaze, unable to look Luffy in the eyes when concern was etched all over his youthful face. The night helped; she couldn't see him clearly anyway. "We can talk about it after we're done with all this."

"This?"

"After we bring down the culprit and save the town."

"Oh." Luffy smiled again, but this time it wasn't with the same wattage as before. "Sure thing. I also have something to tell you, Nami, so that's convenient."

"Oh," she echoed dully. The atmosphere was tense, so she let loose a joke to lighten the mood. "Nothing bad about me, I hope." But Luffy didn't crack a smile. Instead, his expression remained stoic and somewhat aggrieved, which triggered warning bells in her head. "Luffy?"

"It's about you," he said finally, tugging his straw hat low over his eyes. "But it's nothing bad. Uhm, I guess it depends on how you look at it."

Her hands felt clammy. "Oh, really?" she tried for a smile but it came out more like an uncontrollable twitch of her lips. "That's great. I mean, we haven't talked enough. We don't know each other well either. This is perfect. We can really acquaint ourselves with each other. Learn what makes us, us." She was blabbering, and she knew it, but Nami found that she couldn't stop. "Like you know, I'm very curious about the extent of your abilities. I'm actually still quite clueless about it, and you really should enlighten me because I was so worried for you back there when that bounty hunter fired at you - I'm sorry, I should shut up now." She felt compelled to add something when Luffy didn't reply. Maybe he did, but she couldn't hear him over the roar of blood in her ears from embarrassment. "Anyway, I can't wait to hear what's bothering you about me."

As soon as those words left her mouth, she mentally kicked herself. She should have just kept her trap shut. An awkward silence followed, oppressive in its intensity. The cool evening wind did little to ease the heat creeping up Nami's neck and she thanked all the deities above and in the sea that it was too dark for Luffy to notice. What was she thinking?

Well, she clearly wasn't.

She realised that when it came to her captain, her brainwaves functioned a little differently.

Luffy spoke up first, cutting through her self-deprecation. "You're right, this is hardly the place and time. Let's discuss this later." He chuckled lightly and scratched the back of his head. "Why am I more concerned about this talk than what's going to happen next?"

Despite herself, Nami smiled. Luffy was just too adorably honest sometimes. Oh God, did she just use "adorable" and "Luffy" in the same sentence? Yep, she was officially going insane. "Focus, Luffy. The lives of many are at stake here." _You too, Nami. Pull yourself together!_

"Of course. No more playing around." The energy boy sucked in a deep breath and heaved it out. "You ready to kick some ass, Nami?"

"As ready as I'll ever be."

Her confirmation voiced out, Luffy nodded and reached out to push at the single steel door. It was well-oiled and opened surprisingly easily, indicating that the building wasn't as abandoned as they once thought. It was completely dark inside without a sliver of illumination, unlike the outside where pale moonlight peeked through the gaps of the rustling leaves in the breeze. Nami could barely see her hand in front of her face - it was that complete of a darkness.

Luffy took a tentative step forward into the unknown, testing the strength of the floor with a few stomps and grunted in approval when the resulting sound revealed that it's hardened concrete. "Stick close to me," he instructed to the redhead, and Nami didn't need him to tell her twice. She latched onto his forearm as if she was trapped in a never-ending nightmare and he was her only salvation.

Restlessness clung to her like a second skin as she followed closely behind her captain. They proceeded with caution, Luffy stopping every so often for a few seconds to presumably ensure that they were on the right track before continuing. Nami felt like an unsuspecting deer that had walked right into the lion's lair - except that this time, the deer had walked in on its own accord, knowing very well the risks involved.

The darkness was incredibly suffocating, and it only got worse as they went further inwards. Every minute felt like an eternity, compounded by her severe disorientation and blinded senses. The only thing that was grounding her was the feel of Luffy's warm skin beneath her fingertips and the belief that he'll get them both out of this intact.

If only they had prepared a source of light, she groused to herself. Anything would do. She'll settle for a small candle at this point to make it more bearable. A thought suddenly occurred to her in a moment of startling cognizance. "Wait, Luffy. What are your abilities again? If I recall correctly, I remember hearing Coby mention something about energy manipulation?"

"Uhh, yeah. That's basically it, though it's way more complicated than – "

"Then," Nami interrupted impatiently, the familiar threads of anger infusing into her voice, making it emerge hissed and with just the appropriate sprinkle of spite and ire, "why the fuck are you not making some light to guide our way?"

A good few seconds elapsed in complete, bewildered silence. Then, a quiet, contrite "oh" filled Nami's ears at the same time an orb of light appeared atop of Luffy's palm, illuminating their surroundings.

"LUUUUUUUUFFFFFFFFFY!"

* * *

Zoro hit the ground unceremoniously with a garbled curse, his blades miraculously missing him by a bare margin as they too fell from the sky and buried themselves in the sand.

 _Damn, he definitely hits hard._

Struggling past the dizziness to get to his feet as fast as possible to face his adversary, Zoro glanced up in time to catch a flicker of movement from the corner of his eye. Before he could even dislodge the swords on the ground, his abdomen was greeted by a sweeping roundhouse kick that sent him staggering a few feet back, all his breath leaving him in a shocked exhale from the blow. He didn't have anytime to recover as Coby wheeled on him again, this time with his right fist drawn all the way back to deliver the knockout blow and Zoro reacted on instinct, desperately throwing up both his hands in a cross to protect himself.

The impact jarred him to his very bones. This time, he wasn't merely sent flying. He soared so high off the ground he collided with multiple branches that snapped and cracked upon meeting his back before ending his flight when he crashed mutedly into a thick, sturdy trunk and slid slowly to the ground in a haze of red.

 _Get up, Zoro. You can't lose like this. Not to a measly punch._

Black spots swam across his vision, appearing and fading one after another. His entire body ached like a bitch, and he was sure he had broken at least one of his ribs – the agony was so fucking intense he was close to passing out. It was so incredibly tempting; to succumb to the beckoning oblivion, to escape from the throbbing torment with every beat of his palpitating heart. But Zoro refused to give up. If he threw in the towel, he'll be admitting defeat. Allowing his lifelong goal to go up in smoke.

And to be the best swordsman in the world, he cannot know defeat.

Blood roared in his ears and adrenaline pumped strongly through his veins as he gritted his teeth to stop himself from screaming at the pain that immediately stabs at every part of his body when he mulishly pushed himself to his feet with his back against the trunk of the tree. It took him close to a full minute to be upright again, and then, teetering unsteadily on his numb legs for a short few seconds, he promptly collapsed face-first to the ground in a boneless heap, his body no longer able to withstand anymore punishment.

And even then, at the brink of total shutdown, he clenched his fists and attempted to get up once again, his nails digging into his skin but he was past the point of registering the pain. There'll be hell to pay the moment the adrenaline drained from his system, but as long as he could still draw breath, as long as he could still move a finger, he will _not_ fucking stop fighting.

"You actually survived a punch at point blank range infused with Haki? At the very least, you should be immobile or rendered unconscious. I have to say, Zoro, you have outstanding stamina and astonishing will to even try to get back up after that."

Despite his crippled condition, Zoro couldn't help but smile into the dirt, his neck muscles not responding so he was unable to raise his head to face the pink-haired pirate. "Save your compliments, pirate. You're making it sound like the fight has come to an end and it hasn't. I'm still going to beat you down."

A light chuckle. "I respect your perseverance and spirit, but part of being strong is knowing when you have lost. Admit it, Zoro, you've lost. You can hardly move a finger, much less do anything to me."

Zoro growled. "Give me a minute and I'll be back on my feet – "

"You don't get it, do you?" Coby must have hunkered down next to him because his voice got distinctly clearer and louder. Zoro tensed and readied his battered body for another hit that could very well finish him off once and for all, but it didn't come. "There's a gulf between us that you cannot hope to close as of now."

"Bull fucking shit," Zoro spat out, his voice slightly muffled by the fact that his mouth was still pressed against the loamy soil. "Don't feed me that kind of fucking nonsense. I've come this far; a minor setback like this is nothing."

"Right." Coby's amused tone angered Zoro past any rational thought. "Not being able to move your body is just a minor setback. Admit it, Zoro, you've lost – "

"Shut. The. Fuck. Up." Strength he never thought he possessed swelled and blossomed within his chest, urging him to get back up and prove that arrogant piece of shit wrong. And that's exactly what he did. He took great satisfaction in the way the expression on Coby's face twisted from one of rueful gaiety to wide-eyed disbelief before settling on wariness. "You have no idea what I'm capable of. And even if I'm going to lose to the likes of you, I won't go down without a fight to my last breath." A wave of pain roiled over him as Zoro erected himself to his full height and he swayed unsteadily, his hand seeking for the trunk of the tree to balance himself.

"It's taking all you have to just stand up, isn't it?" Coby sighed. "I'm not going to ask you to give up though; I can see that it's going to be a waste of my breath. You have earned my respect, Zoro. It'll be an honour to fight beside you, if you would consider joining our crew. We need a swordsman of your calibre on our journey."

"Don't bother." Zoro spat a generous amount of blood onto the ground, leaving the grass a vivid red. "I will never join a crew of vile pirates. Fucking villains, every last one of you."

Coby raised an eyebrow at his open belligerence. "You're generalising. Not all pirates are the vermin you think they are. There are still noble ones that play by the rules and follow the code of conduct."

"I don't care." Limping over to where his blades lay half planted in the ground, he pulled them out in a smooth, familiar motion and inserted the hilt of the third blade between the clutches of his teeth. "Your mere existence annoys me. That is why I must eradicate you at all costs."

The young pink-haired pirate looked mildly annoyed. "That's enough, Zoro. I don't want to have to kill anybody today, especially not an individual as brilliant as you."

Zoro cackled like an insane man in the asylum, his grip on his treasured swords so hard his knuckles were turning white. "That's a crying shame, then. Because I definitely want to kill you. _Santoryu."_ Drawing in a ragged breath – the simple motion causing a sharp jolt of discomfort – Zoro raised both his swords in his hands above and behind his shoulders horizontally, in line with the third blade in his mouth. He smiled at how Coby took an involuntary step back, wary and alert for whatever was coming next. "Phoenix of the 108 Earthly Desires. 108 POUND CANNON!"

Cutting down to form a circular motion with all three blades, Zoro unleashed a violent shockwave in Coby's direction, decimating the soil in its line of travel and leaving giant gouge marks behind. Before he could even witness the destruction of the cocky pink-haired teenager – he did, however, hear the explosion that stung his eardrums and the outwards radiation of heat – he sunk to his knees in a sudden loss of strength, gasping for air and cursing his ineptitude brought on by his lack of motivation to get better. _At least now_ , he thought with a weak grin at the small clearing once alive with green shrubbery and towering trees now entirely obliterated, a giant smoking crater where Coby was last standing, _I have faced an adversary that makes me feel inadequate. This near-margin victory is nothing to be jubilant over._

"Well, I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't that."

Surprise had Zoro's head snapping up and seeking the source of the droll voice. _It couldn't be… how did he…?!_

Coby was standing beside him with a slight wince as he clenched and released his fist tentatively, his clothes looking a little worse for wear but otherwise in the pink of health. The right shoulder of his pale blue jacket was torn off, leaving it totally sleeveless and there were small blotches of sear marks along the upper portion of the top. There was a sinking feeling in the pit of Zoro's stomach as he surveyed his opponent – how had he managed to escape almost unscathed? His only comfort was that Coby's hand seemed to be injured in some manner, but that little silver lining did nothing to soothe his hurt ego. _That was my ultimate technique, and he just shrugged it off like it's nothing?_

"How did you survive that? You should be nothing but dust now," Zoro gritted out. He didn't want to admit defeat, but he was pretty sure that inexplicable burst of renewed energy a minute ago wasn't going to occur again. Miracles didn't happen twice. He had lost. For some reason, he couldn't conjure up the ire he had always thought he'll feel when he finally discovered the meaning of that word. He was oddly at peace with himself; he had come up lacking but at least he had given it his all.

He had no regrets. He had simply bitten off more than he could chew, and that's all he wrote.

Sure, he was bitter. He didn't envision himself going out like this, but fate was a cruel mistress.

"I should be," Coby agreed, and Zoro re-focused on him. "If I hadn't used armament Haki to fortify my forearm, I would be toast. That packed one hell of a punch, Zoro."

He couldn't hold in his curiosity any longer. "What the hell is this Haki that you've been going on and on about? How do you "fortify" your forearm? What does that even fucking mean?"

Coby responded with a non-committal sound to his question before pegging him with a probing stare. "You lost, Zoro."

"I know," he snarled, glaring at the pink-haired pirate. Refusing to submit to the pain, he clenched his jaw and straightened his body, baring his torso to the victor. "It's considered honourable to die by the hands of the victor, but only if I see my death approaching. There's no need to stab me in the back. I will not resist. Kill me."

An indeterminable amount of time passed, so lost in the haze of agony Zoro was. He was slipping in and out of consciousness, but he forced himself to narrow his vision at Coby only to find him shaking his head in ostensible mirth. "What are you doing?!" he demanded. "KILL ME ALREADY, COBY OF THE STRAW HAT PIRATES!"

"No."

"What was that?!"

A weary sigh. "No, I'm not going to kill you, Zoro the Pirate Hunter. I want you to join the Straw Hat Pirates, and I'll prefer it if you remained alive so we can recruit something more than a corpse into our crew."

"I already told you, I will never join – "

"Don't you want to get stronger? Don't you want to meet opponents that'll push you to your absolute limits so you'll never stop pushing yourself? You're more like me than you realize, Zoro. Your thirst, your drive, your goal."

"Don't put me in the same category as you. If you're only striving for the same thing as I am, why did you become a pirate? You don't have to join a pirate crew to become stronger," Zoro pointed out defiantly.

"It makes things infinitely easier. A crew helps you to _grow_ not only as an individual, but as a team player as well. You learn to care for the well-being of one another, and believe it or not, this trait encourages you to keep improving yourself to protect the people around you who might not be as gifted in the art of battle and are vulnerable. Furthermore, being in a pirate crew gives you the chance to sail the world, to visit places you've only heard about in songs sung around the campfire and face enemies who can crush you in the blink of an eye." Coby smiled at how Zoro was blinking rapidly, trying to digest that long-winded explanation. "To sum it all up; _adventure._ "

"Annnnd… You're curious about what this Haki I've been mentioning is right?" Coby dangled the question in front of him like the juiciest of baits. "I'll tell you, but only if you join us. I can even try to impart some of my knowledge to you. Trust me, once you're able to use it, you'll be horrified you haven't tried to awaken it before."

Zoro wasn't going to lie; his resolve was crumbling in the face of such a tempting offer. The way Coby had so eloquently put it… He would never improve if he stuck around on this deadbeat island – or this sea, for that matter. The past few years were evidence enough. And that Haki thing? Curse the Sea Devil, if promise of ridiculously powerful enemies hadn't been convincing enough, that definitely tilted everything in that damnable pirate's favour. But… "It all sounds very good," the swordsman hedged grudgingly, "but all that still doesn't warrant being part of a villainous family that marauds and destroy people's livelihood for a living!"

Coby closed his eyes and glanced up at the sky for briefly as if seeking patience from the Gods above. "How many times have I told you, Zoro? Not _all_ pirates are the villains you imagine them to be! You know what? How about I bring you to my captain, and you can decide after you talk to him. Maybe you'll find it easier to understand then."

Zoro narrowed his eyes. "What's so special about your captain?"

Coby's lips quirked slightly, his apparent amusement lost on the swordsman. "It'll be rude for me to spoil the surprise." He walked over to him and offered him a hand. "Come on, let's catch up with the rest of my crew. They're probably getting worried." He glanced at the setting sun and the brisk descent of night.

Zoro hesitated for a heartbeat before scowling and grabbing Coby's hand. The pink-haired pirate hauled him to his feet forcefully and Zoro almost fell over, his stubborn pride refusing to let him hit the ground again. His legs barely held up, but he somehow managed to rise to his full height and plod after Coby who had already started strolling off.

The pink-haired pirate glanced back at him from time to time to ensure that he was following. "Need a shoulder to lean on?" he asked with a perfectly neutral expression, but Zoro detected the plain notes of playfulness.

"Fuck you."

Coby chuckled. "I thought so."

They walked along for awhile in quiet, the sound of birds roosting for the night and leaves rustling their sole accompaniment music. It wasn't very tense, but neither was it comfortable. The silence was somewhat strained, and Coby must have felt the need to fill it because he soon asked, "Am I right to assume that you're hired muscle?"

He didn't really like that term; it made him sound like someone who bowed easily to orders - and for money, no less. He wasn't that sort of person, but recently, cash was tight with the decline in pirates stirring up trouble, no doubt due to the news of Marines tightening their security and the increasingly frequent patrols. "I guess you can say that," he grunted, "but I only accepted because I had nothing else to do."

"So, have you met the guy that hired you?"

"Yeah. Some short, creepy guy. Always has a cloak draped over his head. Doesn't talk much, but when he does, the stuff that comes out is some fanatic gibberish about taking over the world with a modified Devil Fruit."

Coby slowed down his gait to fall into step next to him. "What kind of power does he have?"

"I'm not entirely sure. He didn't elaborate, but we had no reason to ask either." Zoro shrugged and winced when that motion caused him quite a bout of discomfort. "My best bet is that he has some sort of affinity with darkness, because he has this weird fetish where he always wants the room he is in to be pitch black. He also normally only appears after the cover of night - he refused to meet the bounty hunters he hired until after night fell."

"That's strange." The only Devil Fruit Coby was aware of having abilities related to darkness was the Yami Yami No Mi, and that had been consumed by Blackbeard, who doesn't fit the description at all. Besides, that rampaging tyrant would never bother himself with small islands such as this in the weaker seas - he had bigger fish to fry in the Grand Line. "Are you sure he's short?"

"Sure looks that way. It was dark, so I might be mistaken, but I doubt so."

Coby hummed thoughtfully. "Anything else about him that you noticed? Something he was talking about, perhaps?"

Zoro tried his hardest to recall something from his fragmented memories. It took a while, but he remembered something the cloaked man had said. "The _Mozaru Hantas,_ " he echoed, thinking back to the odd sounding name that had sent the other bounty hunters into a frenzy. "He said that they - "

"Wait. Did you just say the _Mozaru Hantas?"_ Coby had halted entirely, his mouth agape. "Please tell me that I've suddenly developed some sort of hearing deficiency and you did not just say the _Mozaru Hantas."_

Zoro just looked at him like he's a blithering idiot. "That's what I said."

Coby's worried expression told him more than he could ever say. "That's not good. We need to get there and help Luffy and Nami, _now._ Do you know the way there?"

The reply emerged with utter conviction from Zoro. "Of course. Follow me."

The duo dove back into the forest in the opposite direction from which Luffy and Nami had taken just a few minutes ago.

 **TBC**

* * *

A/N: Hello people. Hope you've been having a good week, because I sure as hell haven't. Lost my fucking wallet, and now I'm going through the hassle of replacing every single fucking thing in it. Oh well, learn from mistakes right?

Anyway, sorry for the wait. I was really, really busy the past few days making calls and asking around, so I didn't have much time to really work on this story. That being said, here's the conclusion to the fight between Zoro and Coby (might be a tad bit anti-climatic, I understand. I initially wanted to make this fight really epic, but the characters didn't seem to want it that way. A fight to the death just didn't seem right at this moment.)

If you guys are disappointed, I apologize, but I promise that the fight between this "commander of darkness" and Luffy will be pretty damn epic in the following chapter, so hold your horses and stay tuned!

 **Reviews**

 **Darth Prime** : Always a pleasure to read your reviews. Hmm, so, from what I've gathered from some reviews, there are differing opinions about how the fight went. Personally, I feel that the only way to make this story interesting is to have Coby, Zoro and Sanji around the same level. They'll be the monster trio, but Coby will have just this little edge over them because of his experience with Haki. And you're absolutely right - I couldn't allow Coby to decimate Zoro, because what's the point of recruiting him then? He has to see something in Zoro to offer him a spot on their crew.

Oh, you couldn't begin to imagine what I have planned in store for Luffy and Nami. Heh. And that's _before_ the next girl makes her appearance.

I'm not sure if I've already revealed this before, but yes, Vivi is one of them. Hancock is too, no big secret. The last one, I'll keep it a mystery for now. All of them are good guesses though! One of them might be right, you never know...

Regarding the Sea Prism stone theory, I've come up with my own one that makes sense. It has to do with direct and indirect contact which affects the rate the prism stone depletes one's energy reserves. When in direct contact with a prism stone, it just drains the energy at such a rapid rate that it seems like it's an IMMEDIATE loss of abilities, when in actual fact, it's a process. So when indirectly touching the prism stone through use of one's abilities, it will still be draining, but at a much slower rate. This might explain how Law did the switch-a-roo with his ability but not the strings of the cage. (Surface area, perhaps?)

 **AkaiArashi:** I understand what you're getting at, but bear in mind that Coby trained and travelled with Shanks for 7 years. I've actually mentioned this in the first or second chapter. He also has a natural flair for it, so he picks it up at a faster pace as compared to others. He doesn't have full mastery over armament Haki, hence the need to utilize his enchanted possession, but he is more or less competent at observation haki as he has practiced it for many years. I don't really think that's too far-fetched, considering the length of time he had to train. Regardless, thanks for your input! :)

 **Devlin Dracul:** Ahhh, glad you enjoyed it! It's honestly a real pain in the ass to write fight scenes. The same descriptive words keep popping up in my mind and I have to make a conscious effort to switch them up if not it gets too dull :/ oh dear, I don't actually think that the lemon will be coming soon, it's actually still quite a long time away if everything goes according to plan. (but y'know, they normally don't...) There's still certain issues between Luffy and Nami standing in the way, and their relationship hasn't developed to that stage yet. I'm honestly looking forward to writing it too. Heh! ;)

 **David Teague 3950:** Did she? I don't really remember that anymore.. but yeah, it makes sense. Will have to keep that in mind! I really think so. Look at it from this way - the moment someone takes a _bite_ of the fruit, no matter how small, he or she gains the Devil Fruit's ability. I don't think that the _ingestion_ of the fruit is the key though; it's probably the person or in this case, the object that comes into contact with the flesh within. If a fruit is used to cut into the flesh, the fruit will gain the power of the fruit because if not, technically a "bite" has been taken but the power is still within the fruit, which doesn't make sense. It has to go somewhere, so why not the object that pierced the skin? That's how I'm viewing it anyway, and with this theory, it's going to make my story more interesting because I plan to put these animate objects to good use! That'll be awesome. I might actually adopt that idea for use in this story, if you don't mind! :P

 **Corinthians:** Hello, new reader! Thanks for all those reviews and wonderful compliments. Hope you enjoyed this chapter!

So that's about it for now. Thanks to everybody who read, favourited or left a review. Keep doing it - it encourages me to continue writing!

Until next time, _ciao._


	10. Chapter 10

_**Chapter 10: Madness**_

* * *

"These corridors are never-ending," Nami muttered to Luffy, the navigator inside of her bothered by the numbers of twists and turns they had made in the past minute alone. Her mind was working quickly to plot a simple diagram of the layout of this seemingly abandoned building, trying to determine where they were going to end up. Curiously enough, they hadn't bumped into a dead-end so far. It meant two things - either they've been blessed by Lady Luck, or all the passageways were somehow interconnected and will eventually bring them to their destination.

Nami hoped for the sake of her sanity that it was the latter.

Luffy hadn't been responding much to her sour comments as was the case since a few minutes ago save for clipped replies or grunts of acknowledgement, which was irritating her somewhat. She understood that he was wholly concentrated on the task at hand, but it was getting ridiculous. It felt like she was talking to a wall. In fact, a solid slab of cement might have been better company – if she shouted loud enough, she could at least hear her own echo. Admittedly, she _might_ be a little put off by the entire suffocating darkness thing going on and was feeling the need for some mindless chatter to stave off some of her more distasteful thoughts.

"Have your vocabulary suddenly shrunk so that it only contains _mhm_ and _eh?"_ The redhead grumbled, poking the back of her captain with a finger. "I mean, it wasn't too expansive to begin with, but this is really worrying. My initial assessment was that you have an IQ rivalling that of a typical household mouse, but now it might actually have sunk to an all-time low."

The reply came immediately, and whaddya know? He definitely didn't disappoint. "Huh."

"Wow. You just used a new word. That means you've expanded your range of words you could use by a whopping 50 percent. Congratulations. You have now ascended up the ladder of intelligence and currently rank above that wooden chair we ran into just now."

Luffy mumbled something intelligible and disappeared round another corner, the light vanishing as it was blocked by the wall and Nami yelped, speeding up to catch up with him and the sole source of illumination. As she hurried along to catch up with the raven-haired teenager's longer strides, she wondered which side of Luffy she preferred. The serious, no-messing-around Luffy like right now, or the happy-go-lucky, take-it-as-it-comes Luffy that she was more familiar with? Both carried its own appeal, she guessed, and it depended heavily on the situation. But she would definitely prefer a slightly more blithe and casual captain at this point, rather than the stone-faced boy beside her. "Hey, slow down, will you? In case you haven't noticed, you're the one holding that ball of light in your hand. Be more considerate – "

"We're close."

Nami frowned at being cut off. "Close?"

"The person we're looking for is nearby. I can feel his presence." Her captain pulled up as the corridor they were in opened up into what Nami presumed was a room as the walls were no longer closing in on her. The light in his palm growing bigger and gaining elevation until rays of light revealed every dusty corner of the room they were in, Luffy forayed forward guardedly. For the first time since they've entered the factory, Nami got her first good look at their surroundings. The windows were all sealed and covered with a thick layer of dust, effectively blocking all light from filtering through it. The walls were a pale plaster white with splashes of green from clumps of moss-like plants growing across it. There were a few holes along the side of the wall where some vegetation had seemingly punched through from the interior to the outside in the pursuit of more sunlight. The air was heavy with moisture, and something else that she couldn't really place.

And all of a sudden, the glowing orb flickered out like an extinguished flame, throwing the duo once again into utter darkness. But this time, it felt different. The darkness was so complete and all-enveloping Nami was instantly left light-headed by all her senses shutting down momentarily. Her stomach lurched, the contents threatening to spill out in an act of revolt. Lack of sight aside, the other senses desperately working was little help in the heavy oppression meant to deprive her of any comfort she could find in orientating herself. Her head spun; her legs felt leaden and it was like she could literally _feel_ fear creeping up her body, holding her prisoner as numbness set in with frightening speed. She closed her eyes in a vain attempt to stop her head from spinning.

It was like she was free-falling into a never-ending pit of oblivion, slowly eating away at her soul, draining her of energy and sucking –

Someone was roughly shaking her shoulders, and then cupping her cheeks. She heard her name being repeated over and over, first with uncertainty then with a growing sense of urgency. It slowly pulled her away from that world where panic and chaos ruled supreme, the point of contact giving Nami something to focus on so that she didn't lose herself.

"Nami. Are you alright? Why are you looking at me so blankly? Nami?"

The voice of her captain was getting clearer and louder, but the force that beckoned her towards the swirling shadows never relented for a second. It got stronger, roping her in once again, and with her swiftly diminishing strength, she found that putting up a fight was getting harder and more and more useless.

 _Yes, that's it. Stop struggling. Just give in…_

But why was she fighting against it in the first place? She liked this feeling of weightlessness. It was liberating. Her thoughts were hazy and all over the place, similar to that one time when she had tried some of that Devil Fruit appraisal's secret stash of "herbs". It made her woozy and uncoordinated, but the exhilaration she had gotten from it?

Totally worth it.

"What's going on?! NAMI! Why are you turning cold?! WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO?"

 _Luffy._ Was he the person shaking her body like a ragdoll? Why did he sound so agitated? Was it because of her? She found that she didn't like the edge in his voice, that lining of desperation, but the lance of euphoria that passed through her prevented her from following that line of thought. It suddenly didn't matter anymore; everything was fading to black as she floated away pleasantly to the promise land. Her limbs felt heavy and unresponsive, usurped of whatever strength left in them, and it was a relief to be rid of her material form.

"NAAAAMIIII!"

A part of her was still screaming at her to not succumb to the pull, to continue resisting, but she paid no heed to any of it. How could she? It was too relaxing, too serene… She felt like she was on literal cloud nine. Something so good couldn't possibly be bad, could it? And with that rationalization, she let go of all her inhibitions, those last few taut strands holding her spirit to her body snapping and going slack.

She knew no more after that.

* * *

Nami was gone.

Luffy stared down at her motionless body lying prone on the ground where he had laid her down after she sagged into his arms. He was on his knees at her side, his vision blurry from the unshed tears threatening to spill over. His heart felt like there was something snaking around and squeezing it like a vise so fucking hard his breaths came choppy. Nami's cheeks, once peachy with vitality, was now a dull grey. Unable to bear looking at her unseeing eyes, the straw-hat captain had smoothened her eyelids shut with utmost care, as if she was a porcelain doll and a rough touch would cause her to break. It was the most painful experience ever in his life; to witness someone dying right in front of him, with him helpless to do anything about it.

And dear Sea Devil, how helpless had he felt. He had no idea what was happening – all he knew was that Nami was having some sort of internal battle from the way her expressive eyes kept darting back and forth and her mouth open and close like a goldfish gasping for air. Sure, he was aware of the eddying shadows, the assault by the darkness that lapped at him but did little other than wound his ego at the lack of firepower behind it. Clearly, he had been too confident that it wouldn't affect Nami that much either, and he paid the price.

The ordeal had lasted for close to a minute and to his growing trepidation, Luffy could feel Nami's body – starting from her shoulders to her arms in a downwards manner – turning cold to his touch. Finally, her head had lolled back and she would have collapsed in a lifeless heap onto the ground if he hadn't been there to scoop her up.

"I'm so sorry, Nami. I – I should have been more alert and this wouldn't have happened… It's all my fault!" Luffy raised both his fists up to the sky and slammed it down to the ground, nearly fracturing his wrists in the process, but the pain barely registered amidst his inner torment. Guilt and grief warred together to produce a virulent concoction that burnt at his insides like molten lava. Was she dead? He still couldn't quite believe it. Just moments ago, she had been perfectly fine and poking fun at him…

No, he refused to believe that she's gone for good. It must be a trick, a joke of some sort. If he could just find the person responsible, he might be able to revive her. He _will_ be able to revive her, because he simply couldn't accept the alternative.

Clenching his fists, he gave Nami one last glance before getting to his feet. He didn't want to leave her all alone, even If she wasn't physically presentanymore, but it couldn't be helped. Already, the person responsible for this entire fucking shitfest was approaching. "I'll save you, Nami," he promised through gritted teeth, his eyes closing momentarily as frozen frames of his vivaciously ardent crewmate flashed before him. "You have my word. Hang in there, wherever you are."

When he opened his eyes, there was no mistaking the steely look, the murderous intent. Energy gathered round him in a bubble, causing the air around him to cackle with unbridled power. He strode forward, tiny sparks leaping from his body. The darkness ahead of him split as he stepped forward, making a path for him as if afraid of even touching him in his current state.

A maddeningly gleeful laughter resounded within his head, driving him to the brink of insanity. _Yes, yes,_ the strangely familiar voice howled, _kill. Kill. Kill._

If Luffy had been more astute, more coherent, he would have understood and refrained from following the orders of that little being within him, knowing very well the repercussions of such a slip-up through first-hand experience during his younger days.

But he wasn't.

And for the second time in seven years since coming into possession of the Energy Energy Fruit, he once again relinquished control to that deranged whispering that promised bitter sweet revenge.

And for the second time in seven years, he'll realize just what a big mistake that is.

* * *

 **A/N: Hello guys. A relatively short chapter, but I felt that I need to push this out first to... well, get you guys crazy for the next chapter. Don't we all hate cliffhangers? I know I do. So... here you go. MUAHAHAHAHAHA**

 **Anywho, hope you guys have a good weekend!**

 **REVIEWS!**

Oghren&Corinthians: I'm surprised you actually still remember about that bag of gold. Damn, I thought I could sneak it up on all of y'all, but you really do have an eye for detail. Kudos to you! Let me assure you that I didn't forget, but Coby definitely did... uh oh.

Darth Prime: Glad to hear that you thought the fight was good! Really struggled there trying to strike a balance between Coby and Zoro since I didn't want there to be too big a gap between the two of them. Hmm, I honestly love to write conversations between Luffy and Nami because they're so comical and just adorable sometimes. But what happened in this chapter might put a bit of a hitch in their plans, don't you think? :P Regarding Sanji, i have every intention to make him go crazy because of exactly that. imagine if the self-proclaimed woman-killer is the only guy on board who's not getting any! heh. he'll try to commit suicide at every turn, and zoro and coby will save him every single time with exasperated expressions. i can't wait! :D

Devlin Dracul: Not that far off with that guess! But what those Devil Fruit hunters have in mind is a little bit more despicable than Caesar Clown. just a tad bit, because CC is pretty fucked up in his own right ;)

iitrnr: thanks for taking the time to give me a review! appreciate it :)

demonslayer4: thanks for the compliment. cheers!

xXcoopyXx: i've never taken more than 2 weeks to upload save for that time i was down with fever, so... but i understand the issue of urgency, i just have lots on my plate currently and it's hard for me to find time to really sit down and churn words out. i'm typing on my phone already to be more productive, so i don't think i can speed up my uploads anymore.. i'll try though. thanks for the feedback!

SareneMun: heheh. sorry, one cliffhanger to another. :P well, soon you'll find out who that guy is!

XerzoLotCN: hello! hmm, okay one step at a time. the harem will consist of 5 girls in total, or at least that's how far i've got it planned. and for luffy, you'll see a lot more of his repressed side as well as a darker side (like in this chapter) which is brought on by the Devil Fruit's conscience. the real extent of it will only be unleashed in the next chapter though, so stay tuned! currently, he's only capable of using his Devil Fruit abilities as he hasn't been exposed to Haki as of yet. Perhaps Coby will reveal it to him? Or he'll stumble upon Coby and Zoro's training. Hmmmm... Thanks for the review! Glad to know that you're enjoying the story so far. :)

Mistletainn: I've always found Zoro's total lack of directional sense hilarious and thought I should just slot it in right there to make it funny. Not like Luffy's gonna need any back-up. Or will he? :P Thanks for the review!

Shikaku Zetsumei: Hello new reader! Thanks for all the compliments and for your support by reviewing. Yep, my story will be a bit more on the slow-paced side because I feel the need to explore the back story as well as develop my characters before moving on, especially if I'm going to touch on romance. Won't want Luffy and Nami to fall in love instantly because this ain't some typical contemporary romance where the main leads jump each others' bones the moment they meet. Heh. Berudians! Okay, I've mentioned them in a long-ass paragraph in one of the chapters which I've subsequently removed because it had no relevance to the current story. I've replaced it with a brief mention in that chapter now, and their history and how they came to be will be explained in future arcs. They're the Devil Fruit appraisals in this story, by the way!

 **So that's it. Thanks for all the support guys, and I'll work hard to continue pushing out chapters as fast as I can. Till next time, y'all. Ciao!**


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